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. ■ . 

THE  THOROUGHFARES 

AND  TRAFFIC  OF  PATERSON 


A REPORT 

OF  THE 

CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

PATERSON,  NEW  JERSEY 


PREPARED  BY 

HERBERT  S.  SWAN 

CONSULTANT 


1922. 


Return  this  book  on  or  before  the 
Latest  Date  stamped  below.  A 
charge  is  made  on  all  overdue 


books. 

U.  of  I.  Library 

± 'J  jj  , 

0 

c 

M32 

1 he  Thoroughfares  and  T raffic  of  Paterson 


A REPORT 

OF  THE 

CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

PATERSON,  NEW  JERSEY 


PREPARED  P,Y 

HERBERT  S.  SWAN 

CONSULTANT 


lU'port  Approvc'd  by  City  Plan  Connuission, 
.JANUARY  20,  l!t22. 


•fl 


I,- 


36'ti.OI 

fXl-t 


CITY  I’LAN  COMMISSION 


r.lORTKAM  JI.  SAUNDERS,  Cluiirman 
FliANK  A.  CIUOL 
JACOB  FABIAN 
WILLIAM  T.  FANNING 
R.  G.  HUGHES 
ELSWORTH  M.  LEE 
THOMAS  H.  MILSON 
JOHN  J.  O’ROURKE,  Secretary 


o 


TECHNICAL  STAFF 


A 


HERBERT  S.  SWAN  and  Associates 
HERBERT  S.  SWAN,  Director 
GEORGE  W.  TUTTLE,  Engineer 
R.  PARTINGTON,  Chief  Draughtsman 
F.  W.  LOOK,  Draughtsman 
J.  C.  VEENSTRA,  Draughtsman 
I HILDA  S.  PROVOST,  Secretary 


COPY1MOHT,  1922,  CITY  I’CAN  COMMISSION 
PATIOKSON,  NEW  JERSEY 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


Page 

Chapter  I.  Causes  of  Street  Congestion  in  Paterson 1 

Defects  in  the  Street  Plan. 

Railroad  Grade  Crossings. 

The  Trolleys. 

The  Jitneys. 

Parking. 

Chapter  II.  Regulating  Traffic  to  Relieve  Street  Congestion 16 

Changing  Character  of  Traffic. 

The  Separation  of  Fast  and  Slow  Traffic. 

Parking. 

Trolley  Stops. 

Re-routing  of  Trolleys  and  Jitneys. 

Features  of  Proposed  Plan. 

Present  Routes  and  Proposed  Re-routings. 

Advantages  of  Proposed  Plan. 

Chapter  III.  Functional  Street  Planning ,38 

A Scientific  Paving  Policy. 

Cross  Sections  of  Residential  Streets. 

Cross  Sections  of  Business  Streets, 

Street  Intersections  and  Curb  Corners. 


Chapter  IV.  Needed  Improvements  in  the  City’s  Street  System 47 

Bridge  Street. 

Water  Street. 

Marshall  Street. 

The  Fallsway  Memorial. 

Straight  Street. 

Market  Street. 

Lakeview  Avenue. 

The  Boulevard. 

Morris  and  Essex  Boulevard. 

Newark  Avenue. 

York  Avenue. 

Madison  Avenue. 

Sixteenth  Avenue  and  Crosl)y  Place. 

Morton  Street. 

East  Fifth  Street. 

Van  Houten  Street. 

Twenty-Third  Avenue. 

Summer  Street  Viaduct. 

Clark  Street. 

Passaic  River  Bridges. 

(fiiapter  V.  The  Administrative  and  Phnancial  Machinery  for 

Carrying  out  the  Plan 66 

The  Establishment  of  Proposed  Street  Lines. 

Immediate  Acquisition  of  Vacant  Land  within 
Proposed  Streets. 

Gradual  Recession  of  Fronts  in  Built  Portions 
of  Widenings. 

Making  Improvements  Pay  for  Themselves. 


TAI51.K  OF  (ONTFNTS  ((  onlimied) 


I’aRt* 


Chapter  VI.  Excess  Condemnation 70 

Chapter  VII.  Special  Assessments 75 

The  Benefit  Area. 


Distribution  of  Benefits  Between  Different  Areas- 
The  Ilalf-Value  Rule. 

One-Third  of  Buildings  Assessed  upon  the  City. 
Buildings  Within  Projected  Street  Lines. 

The  Block  Rule. 

Principles  Followed  in  Estimating  Damages  for 
Buildings. 

Principles  Followed  in  Estimating  Damages  for  Land. 
Principles  Followed  in  Estimating  Damages  for 
Excess  Lands. 

Principles  Followed  in  Estimating  Damages  for 
Intended  Regulation. 

o 

LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS. 


Page 


Fig.  1.  The  Falls (Facing)  1 

” 2.  Map  of  Paterson  1820 2 

” 3.  Map  of  Paterson  1835 4 

” 4.  Traffic  Delayed  by  Railroad  Gates 6 

” 5-  Length  of  Traffic  Delays 6 

” 6.  Length  of  Delay  to  Vehicles (5 

” 7.  Time  of  Closed  Gates 6 

” 8.  Per  cent  of  Traffic  Delayed 0 

” 9.  Per  cent  of  Time  Gates  Were  Closed (5 

” 10.  Market  Street  Looking  East  from  Erie  Station 7 

” 11.  Market  Street  Looking  East  from  City  Hall 7 

” 12.  Washington  Street  opposite  City  Hall 8 

” 13.  Railroad  Gates  at  Broadway 8 

” 14.  Railroad  Crossings 9 

” 15.  Radial  Streets  in  Paterson  and  Vicinity 10 

” 16.  Population  of  Paterson  and  Neighboring  Suburbs  1870-1920  11 

” 17.  Madison  Avenue  and  Susquehanna  Railroad 12 

” 18.  Buildings  separating  two  ends  of  Madison  Avenue 12 

” 19.  Distribution  of  Population,  Pateivson  and  Vicinity,  1920 13 

” 20.  Parked  Cars  on  Market  Street 14 

” 21.  Railroad  Gates  at  Mai’ket  Street 14 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS  ((ontinued) 


Page 


22. 

23. 

24. 

25. 

26. 

27. 

28. 

29. 

30. 

31. 

32. 

OO 


36. 

37. 

38. 

39. 

40. 

41. 

42. 

43. 

44. 

45. 

46. 

47. 

48. 

49. 

50. 

51. 

52. 

53. 

54. 

55. 

56. 

57. 

58. 

59. 

60. 
61. 
62. 

63. 

64. 

65. 

66. 

67. 

68. 
69. 


Changing-  Character  of  Traffic 16 

Flow  of  Traffic,  Main  and  Intersecting  Streets 18 

Vehicular  Traffic  Streams  Broadway,  Bridge  and 

Church  Streets 20 

Vehicular  Traffic  Streams  Main,  Broadway  and  West  Streets  22 

Parked  Cars  Downtown  Paterson 24 

Time  Consumed  by  Trolleys,  Main  Street,  between  Market 

and  Ellison  Streets 26 

Time  Consumed  by  Trolleys,  Main  Street,  between  Ellison 

and  Broadway 26 

Present  Trolley  Stops 27 

Proposed  Trolley  Stops 27 

Per  cent  of  Traffic  Delayed  by  Trolleys 30 

Length  of  Traffic  Delays  caused  by  Trolleys 30 

Trolley  Traffic  Streams 32 

Plan  for  Pte-Routing  Trolley  Traffic 33 

Jitney  Traffic  Streams 34 

Plan  for  Distributing  Jitney  Traffic 35 

The  Falls  in  Summer 37 

Market  Street  Looking  West  from  Erie  Station 39 

Main  Street  Looking  North  from  Market  Street 39 

West  Side  Park  and  Vicinity 40 

Haledon  Section  of  Paterson 41 

Downtown  Paterson 42 

Downtown  Paterson 43 

Proposed  Cross  Sections  of  Streets 44 

The  Falls  in  Winter 46 

Streets  Less  Than  Sixty  Feet  Wide 48 

Streets  Over  Seventy  Feet  Wide 48 

Bridge  Street  Extension  and  Widening 49 

Water  Street  Widening  and  Extension 50 

Marshall  Street  Extension 51 

Fallsway  Memorial 52 

Straight  Street  Widening 53 

Market  Street  Widening 54 

Boulevard  Relocation  and  Widening 55 

Morris  and  Essex  Boulevard 57 

York  Avenue  Extension  and  Widening 59 

Madison  Avenue  Extension 60 

East  Fifth  Street  Extension 61 

Fluctuations  in  Eastbound  and  Westbound  Traffic 64 

Vehicular  Traff  ic  Streams,  Main  and  Market  Streets 65 

Ellison  Street  Looking  West  from  Colt  Street 68 

Vehicular  Traffic  Streams,  Main  and  Van  Houten  Streets__  71 

Map  of  Paterson,  1840  73 

Comparative  Traffic  Volumes  on  Different  Streets 76 

Washington  Street  Looking  North  from  Market  Street 77 

Vehicular  Traffic  Streams,  Main  and  Ellison  Streets 79 


Mai-ket  Island  80 

Main  Street  Looking  North  from  Market  Street 81 

Major  Street  Plan (Facing)  82 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2017  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/thoroughfarestraOOswan 


FIGURE  1.— The  Falls. 


I 


(IIAl’TKR  1. 


(’AI1SKS  OF  STREKT  (ONOESTION  IN  PATERSON. 


Defects  in  the  Street  Plan. 

Street  congestion  in  Paterson  is  due  more 
to  innate  defects  in  the  street  plan  than  to 
the  volume  of  traffic.  The  number  of  vehi- 
cles, thoug’h  large  at  many  intersections,  is 
not  so  large  as  in  itself  to  congest  the  streets 
were  it  not  for  the  fact  that  the  streets  them- 
selves are  ill-designed  to  meet  traffic  needs. 

The  difficulty  can  be  traced  back  directly 
to  the  original  fathers  of  the  city.  Though 
the  men  responsible  for  laying  the  founda- 
tions of  Paterson  at  first  keenly  felt  the  need 
of  a plan,  and  through  the  efforts  of  Alex- 
ander Hamilton,  at  that  time  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury,  took  steps  to  secure  the  services  of 
Major  L’Enfant — who  had  just  prepared 
plans  for  what  was  to  become  the  capital  city 
of  the  new  country — to  fomiulate  plans  for 
the  industrial  center  projected  at  the  falls 
of  the  Passaic,  they  felt  that  these  plans 
when  submitted  to  them  were  entirely  too 
ambitious.  And  so  it  came  about  that  though 
Paterson  might  at  the  very  start  have  com- 
menced to  direct  its  growth  under  a plan 
evolved  by  America’s  first  great  city  plan- 
ner, decided  to  do  nothing.  Thenceforth  for 
the  next  eighty  years,  the  plan  of  the  city 
was  left  entirely  in  the  hands  of  individual 
land  owners — whatever  their  whims  or 
caprice  dictated  determined  the  character  of 
the  street  plan  for  they,  and  they  alone, 
assumed  all  of  the  responsibility  of  subdivid- 
ing the  vacant  farmlands  into  city  streets 
and  building  lots. 

It  was  a most  unfortunate  circumstance 
that  all  direction  guiding  the  development  of 
the  plan  should  have  been  removea  at  the 
very  infancy  of  the  city  for  the  areas  laid 
out  in  the  eai’ly  yeais  were  destined  to  be- 
come the  downtown  business  section  of  the 
city  as  we  know  it  today.  The  streets  laid 
out  then  are  as  a rule  all  too  narrow;  wide 


streets  feed  into  narrow  ones;  there  are  fi'e- 
quent  offsets  and  gaps  without  any  streets 
at  all;  it  is  not  uncommon  for  streets  to 
change  their  direction  without  any  apparent 
reason. 

Main  Street,  having  a maximum  width  of 
77  feet  at  Market  Street,  tapers  until  it  has 
a width  of  only  43  feet  beyond  Broadway. 
North  of  Market  Street,  the  east  and  west 
streets  are  sufficiently  frequent  and  direct 
to  care  for  traffic,  but  south  of  Market  Street 
there  is  no  continuous,  unbroken  crosstown 
street  uninterrupted  by  the  railroad  or 
Sandy  Hill  Park  until  Cedar  Street  is  reached. 
Main  Street  is  the  only  through  north  and 
south  street  in  the  entire  business  district. 
Washington,  Church,  Bridge  and  Paterson 
Streets,  though  narrow,  would  be  admirable 
through  streets  paralleling  Main  if  they  were 
only  through  streets,  but  at  the  critical 
points,  they  either  break  into  offsets  or  come 
to  a dead  stop.  The  result  is  that  the 
through  traffic  utilizing  these  north  and 
south  streets  is  forced  to  utilize  the  east  and 
west  streets  to  continue  on  its  way  through 
the  city.  This,  of  course,  unnecessarily  con- 
gests the  traffic  on  the  cross  streets.  Some 
of  these  north  and  south  streets,  or  rather 
pieces  of  streets,  change  their  direction  six 
or  seven  times,  making  awkward  bends  or 
coming  to  an  abrupt  stop.  The  consequence 
of  this  situation  is  that  Main  Street  is  over- 
taxed — being  the  only  continuous  through 
north  and  south  street,  it  has  to  serve  a dis- 
proportionate amount  of  the  downtown 
traffic. 

These  earlier  mistakes  in  street  planning 
were,  to  a large  extent,  avoided  in  the  street 
plan  laid  down  for  the  outlying  districts  by 
the  Board  of  Aldermen,  in  1870,  upon  what 
is  known  as  the  “Coetschius  Map”,  a map 
which  established  streets  and  blocks  for  all 
the  then  unsubdivided  areas  within  the  city. 


2 


FIGURE  2. — Map  of  Paterson  1820.  The  earliest  street  map  now  extant.  This  is  the  plan  Paterson  deliberately 
adopted  in  lieu  of  the  comprehensive  plan  prepared  by  L’Enfant  in  1792. 


iUit  luM-o  a now  diiriculty  developed — that  of 
too  much  standardization.  All  streets  weie 
run  in  the  same  direction  ii-respective  of  topo- 
graphy. they  were  laid  out  of  the  same  width 
without  I'eference  to  the  needs  of  different 
localities  and  the  blocks  were  all  made  the 
same  width. 

The  a«-o-reo-ate  street  area  of  the  city,  if 
consistently  arranged  along  systematic  lines 
would  more  than  suffice  for  all  its  traffic 
requirements — future  no  less  than  present. 
In  the  downtown  section,  where  wide  streets 
are  essential,  only  nari'ow  ones  have  been 
provided ; in  the  newer  residence  districts 
where  narrower  streets  would  be  adequate, 
comparatively  wide  ones — that  is  streets  60 
and  70  feet  wide — come  pretty  near  to  being 
the  rule. 

Such  wide  streets  as  the  city  has  have 
never  been  laid  out  with  any  all  embracing 
vision  of  the  city’s  needs  as  a whole.  Here 
and  there  may  be  an  isolated  wide  street  or 
an  isolated  portion  of  a street  that  is  wide, 
but  there  is  no  system  of  wide  streets.  Each 
wide  street  or  portion  of  a wide  street  stands 
by  itself,  un-related  and  unco-ordinated  with 
other  wide  streets  with  the  consequence  that 
the  usefulness  of  the  increased  width  of  such 
wide  streets  as  exist  is  greatly  lost. 

Broadway  and  Market  Streets  afford  ex- 
cellent illustrations  of  these  anomalous  con- 
ditions. Broadway,  with  a width  of  80  feet 
east  of  East  18th  Street  narrows  down  to  66 
feet  between  East  18th  Street  and  Main 
Street.  For  a distance  west  of  Main  Street 
it  is  60  feet  wide  but  it  ends  with  an  outlet  of 
only  38  feet  into  Prospect  Street.  Market 
Street  with  a width  of  70  feet  east  of  Madi- 
son Avenue,  is  only  50  feet  wide  between 
Madison  Avenue  and  the  Main  Line  of  the 
Erie.  Then  it  suddenly  widens  out  to  90  feet, 
a width  it  maintains  until  Washington  Street 
is  reached  where  it  shrinks  to  60  feet.  Be- 
yond Mill  Street,  however,  it  again  returns  to 
a width  of  50  feet. 

Circumferential  streets,  the  city  has  prac- 
tically none  at  all.  To  go  from  any  point  on 


the  circumference  of  the  city  to  any  other 
point  on  the  circumference,  it  is  necessaiy  to 
go  thi'ough  the  center  and  then  on  out  again. 
The  downtown  section  is  not  only  the  disti-i- 
buting  center  for  all  the  crosstown  traffic  no 
matter  where  it  originates  or  where  it  goes, 
but  it  is  also  the  distributing  center  for  a 
large  portion  of  the  interurban  traffic. 
Traffic  from  Little  Falls  to  Ridgewood  must 
go  through  the  downtown  congested  district, 
congesting  it  still  more,  wasting  its  own  time 
as  well  as  the  time  of  other  traffic  because 
there  are  no  well  established  detours  around 
the  business  district.  The  same  is  true  of 
traffic  originating  in  Pompton  and  destined 
for  Hackensack  or  of  traffic  going  from  Clif- 
ton and  Montclair  to  Suffern  or  from  Hobo- 
ken to  Singac — all  of  it  must  penetrate  into 
the  inner  congested  ring  of  the  city  to  find 
a road  that  will  lead  to  its  destination. 

Railroad  Grade  Crossings. 

Quite  aside  from  their  danger  to  life  and 
limb,  the  railroad  grade  crossings  constitute 
one  of  the  greatest  obstructions  to  the  free 
movement  of  traffic. 

The  railroads  divide  the  city  into  six  dis- 
tinct sections.  Traffic  cannot,  as  a rule,  go 
from  one  section  to  another  without  passing 
over  at  least  one  grade  crossing  and  some- 
times two  or  three^ — yes,  even  four  or  five. 
The  grade  crossings  are  53  in  number.  How 
the  free  movement  of  traffic  is  interfered 
with  by  the  railroad  crossings  is  well  illus- 
trated by  the  conditions  at  Market  Street  and 
the  Erie  Station,  one  of  the  busiest  traffic 
points  in  the  city. 

On  June  14,  1921,  the  gates  at  this  crossing 
were  down  78  times  for  an  aggregate  period 
of  71  minutes  between  the  hours  of  8:00  a.  m. 
and  6 :00  p.  m.  This  is  at  the  rate  of  one  gate 
between  every  seven  and  eight  minutes.  It 
is  the  exceptional  fifteen-minute  pei'iod  that 
does  not  have  at  least  one  gate.  During 
some  hours,  the  gates  are  down  nine,  ten  and 
even  twelve  times.  No  gate  is  down  less 
than  thirty  seconds;  an  exceptional  one  may 


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FIGURE  3. — Map  of  Paterson  1835.  The  streets  in  Paterson  were  laid 
the  land  wished  to  dispose  of  their  property  for  buiiding  lots. 


out  as  and  when  the  farmers  who  owned 


ho  down  a hundrod  seconds.  The  jiroat  hulk 
of  the  ti’afl’ic  delayed  is  held  up  hetwoen  40 
and  70  seconds.  The  avera{>'c  o-ate  is  down 
55  seconds.  More  than  13%  of  the  total 
trafTic  usino-  the  street  durino-  the  day  is  re- 
tarded. The  per  cent,  of  the  hourly  traffic 
interrupted  ranges  all  the  w'ay  from  8.2%  in 
the  hour  between  3 and  4 to  18.8%  in  the 
hour  between  5 and  6.  Considered  by  fifteen- 
minute  periods  instead  of  by  hours,  the  pro- 
portion of  traffic  obstructed  within  the  period 
reaches  a maximum  of  38%.  In  some  fifteen- 
minute  periods,  the  gates  are  closed  more 
than  a fourth  of  the  time.  On  the  average, 
at  least  twenty  vehicles  are  obstructed  every 
fifteen  minutes.  Often  the  number  reaches 
thirty  and  forty.  On  occasions  it  even  passes 
sixty. 

The  burden  imposed  upon  traffic  by  the 
grade  crossings  is  considerably  greater  than 
that  indicated  by  any  traffic  counts.  Quite 
irrespective  of  whether  the  gates  are  up  or 
down,  the  very  presence  of  the  grade  cross- 
ings retards  all  traffic  using  the  streets. 
Every  vehicle  upon  approaching  a crossing 
usually  slows  down  and  many— street  cars 


for  instance,  invariably  stop. 

When  much  trafl'ic  collects  behind  a closed 
gate,  it  is  not  uncommon  for  the  vehicles  on 
either  side  to  occupy  more  than  the  half  of 
the  roadway  width  to  which  they  are  en- 
titled. Impatient  to  make  a quick  getaway, 
the  traffic  marshalls  itself  upon  a broad 
front,  sometimes  the  entire  roadway  width, 
only  to  find  its  progress  blocked  upon  the 
opening  of  the  gates  by  a like  solid  phalanx 
of  vehicles  opposing  it  on  the  other  side. 
Then  another  wait  ensues  until  the  snarl  in 
the  trafTic  straightens  itself  out. 

Every  grade  crossing  disorganizes  the  sep- 
aration so  desirable  between  fast  and  slow 
vehicles.  In  moving  through  the  streets, 
slow  vehicles  have  their  place  next  to  the 
curb,  fast  vehicles  next  to  the  center  of  the 
street.  But  upon  approaching  a closed  gate, 
each  vehicle  takes  its  place  in  line  without 
reference  to  its  speed.  Several  minutes  may 
elapse  after  the  gates  are  lifted  before  traffic 
can  resume  its  noi'mal  flow. 

Many  vehicles  upon  nearing  a crossing  will 
race  for  it  to  anticipate  the  closing  of  the 
gates  and  thus  obviate  the  wait  incident  to  a 


TAHLP]  1 — TOTAL  HOUllLY  TRAFFIC  RV  KIND. 
Market  Street  and  Ei’ie  Railroad. 


«:0O  A. 

.M.  to 

• (>:00  P.  M.,  June  14,  1 

1021. 

HOUR 

8-!)  9-10 

10-11 

11-12 

12-1  1-2 

2-3 

3-4 

4-5 

5-6 

A— 

TOTAl. 

TRAFFIC 

Total 

Autos 

289  348 

357 

376 

393  352 

290 

323 

424 

482 

3 634 

Trucks 

143  171 

160 

132 

102  106 

109 

142 

135 

116 

1 3 1 6 

.litneys 

57  20 

20 

37 

51  42 

29 

43 

51 

4 8 

398 

Trolleys 

30  26 

29 

32 

35  26 

27 

34 

38 

39 

322 

Wagons 

10  11 

19 

11 

19  13 

27 

19 

16 

10 

155 

Total 

535  576 

585 

588 

600  539 

482 

561 

664 

695 

5825 

X 1 

% 

ot  Total 

R — TRAFFIC  l)F 

CAYFl) 

RY  RAILROAD 

CATI 

OS. 

Trafl'ic 

Autos  

2 8 5 0 

39 

39 

45  47  50 

22 

82 

88 

490 

64.4 

Trucks 

. _ 18  24 

1 1 

13 

9 11  15 

10 

15 

28 

154 

20.2 

.Jitneys 

10  1 

3 

6 

8 6 4 

6 

9 

6 

59 

7.7 

Trolleys 

4 4 

1 

2 

8 12 

(> 

7 

9 

44 

5.8 

Wagons 

4 1 

1 

— - 

3—2 

2 

1 

— 

14 

1.9 

Total  Relayed 

64  80 

55 

60 

73  65  73 

4 6 

114 

131 

761 

1 00.0 

I’ei'  Cent,  of  Total  H 

rraffic  11.9  13.9 

9.4 

10.2 

12.1  12.0  15.1 

8.2 

17.1 

18.1 

13.0 

6 


TRAFFIC  DELAYED  BY  RAILROAD  GATES 


MARKET  STREET  AND  ERIE  RAILROAD 

8AM  6 R M,  JUNE:  I4.iqgl 


FIG. 4.  TOTAL  AND  DELAYED  TRAFFIC 


J lESl 
0 


s-^v 


wo  OOOOOOOO. 

it  M « t r 

■ o • 

2 ig  *)  T iO\P  f-«® 

LENGTH  OFDEL-AV 
TO  V E H 1 CUE  S 
FIG  6 . 


CLOSED  GATES 
FIG.  7. 


GATES  WERE  CLOSED 


7 


FIGURE  10.— The  railroad  gates  on  Market  Street  some-  FIGURE  11.— Downtown  Market  Street  has  the  generous 
times  hoid  up  as  many  as  60  vehicies  in  a fifteen  minute  width  of  90  feet  but  at  either  end  it  is  only  50  feet  wide, 
period. 


passing  train.  That  the  specti'e  of  death 
sometimes  plays  with  such  dare-devil  at- 
tempts is  not  enough  to  dissuade  reckless 
drivers  from  taking  the  chance;  they  would 
risk  life  itself  for  the  hilarious  half  mile  they 
might  ride  while  the  train  is  going  past. 

The  Trolleys. 

The  congestion  of  traffic  in  the  downtown 
streets  of  Paterson,  except  in  so  far  as  it 
owes  its  existence  to  innate  shortcomings  of 
the  street  plan  itself — such  as  too  narrow 
streets,  the  lack  of  sufficient  through  streets, 
the  absence  of  ti'affic  cii'cuits  around  the 
heart  of  the  city  and  the  presence  of  railroad 
crossings — finds  its  chief  source  not  so  much 
in  the  large  number  of  vehicles  using  the 
streets  as  in  the  improper  routing  of  jitneys 
and  trolleys  through  the  business  district  and 
the  utilization  of  all  streets  for  the  inu'king 
of  cars. 

Four-fifths  of  the  street  mileage  used  by 
trolleys  is  so  narrow  that  it  accommodates 
but  a single  traffic  unit  on  either  side  of  the 
car  tracks.  The  result  is  that  where  vehicles 
are  parked  alongside  the  curb,  the  traffic 


must  utilize  the  trolley  space  or  stop. 
When  the  cai’s  slow  down,  the  ti’affic 
must  slow  down ; when  the  cars  stop, 
the  traffic  must  stop — the  streets  are 
too  narrow  to  pei’init  the  two  kinds  of  traffic 
to  proceed  independently  of  each  other. 

The  linear  length  of  the  trolley  lines  on 
streets  of  different  widths  is  shown  in  Table 
JI. 

Everyone  of  the  twelve  trolleys  in  the  city 
either  uses  or  bisects  the  business  portion  of 
Main  Street.  Two  of  the  lines,  the  Broadway 
and  Park  Avenue  lines,  operate  as  belt  lines 
entering  and  leaving  Main  Street  at  Broad- 
way and  Market  Streets  respectively.  The 
llaledon  and  Governor  lines  are  through 
routes  and  also  operate  through  the  busiest 
section  of  Main  Street.  The  four  chief  inter- 
ui’ban  lines,  Hudson  River,  Ihissaic,  Paterson 
and  Main,  all  use  the  Broadway  loop.  The 
remaining  foiu  lines,  Hawthorne,  Riverside, 
Singac  and  Totowa,  use  the  City  Hall  loop. 

The  distance  on  Main  Street  from  Broad- 
way to  Market  is  only  three  blocks.  There 
are  but  four  intersecting  streets  in  this 
stretch — Broadway,  Van  Houten,  Ellison  and 
Market.  The  trolleys  stop  at  each  of  these 


8 


FIGURE  12. — A prohibited  parking  zone,  but  the  cars 
don’t  know  it. 


four  intersections.  Turns  in  and  out  of 
Main  Street  are  made  at  all  foui'  of  these 
streets  and  at  three  the  trolleys  not  only  turn 
on,  but  cross  Main  Street.  At  two  intersec- 
tions, Van  Houten  and  Broadway,  the  trolleys 
turn  in  two  different  directions. 

The  result  of  this  incessant  stopping,  turn- 
ing off  and  on,  crossing  over  and  looping 


FIGURE  13. — While  the  railroad  gates  are  down,  all 
traffic  waits. 


around  Main  Street,  of  course,  results  in  con- 
gestion. While  the  cars  turn  or  cross  Main 
Street,  all  traffic  waits;  when  the  cars  stop, 
all  traffic  stops;  and  Petween  the  waits  and 
stops,  all  movement  of  traffic  is  slowed  down 
to  a point  where  it  bai  ely  crawls. 

The  fastest  cars  on  Main  Street  sometimes 
attain  a speed  of  eleven  miles  an  hour  but 


TABLE  II.  TROLLEY  ROUTES  ON  STREETS  OF  DIFFERENT  WIDTHS. 

WIDTH  OF  STREET  IX  FEET 


10 

5 0 

55 

60 

66 

70 

75 

80 

0 0 

EEXOTH 

OF  TROlJiEY 

ROUTES 

IX  FEE! 

Single  Track 
Double  Track 

2,075 

25,325 

4,100 

2,600 

6,425 

10,825 

31,000 

13,050 

2,550 

5,575 

2,000 

6,800 

1,450 

49,775 

65,800 

Total 

Per  cent. 

2,075 

1.8 

20,125 

25.5 

2,600 

2.2 

17,250 

14.0 

31,0  00 
27.6 

15,600 

13.5 

5,575 

4.8 

0,700 

8.4 

1,450 

1.3 

115,575 
1 00.4  4 

0 


FIGURE  14. — The  railroads  divide  Paterson  into  six  separate  and  distinct  sections. 


the  slowest  cars  limp  along  at  barely  two 
miles  an  hour.  Within  the  same  fifteen- 
minute  period,  there  is  frequently  a spread  of 
as  much  as  eight  or  nine  miles  an  hour  in  the 
speed  of  the  fastest  and  slowest  trolley.  It 
is  the  exceptional  fifteen-minute  period  in 
which  it  does  not  take  the  slowest  car  on  Main 
Street  twice  as  long  a time  to  cover  the  same 
ground  as  that  traversed  by  the  fastest. 

The  846  trolleys,  which  either  enteied  or 
left  the  city  during  the  ten-hour  ])eriod  be- 
tween 9:00  a.  m.  and  7 :00  p.  m.,  November  8, 
1921,  made  799  turns  at  Broadway  and  xMain, 
201  turns  at  Van  Ilouten  and  Main,  248  turns 


at  Ellison  and  Main  and  640  turns  at  Market 
and  Main — an  aggregate  of  1888  turns  on 
Main  Street.  On  Washington  Street,  where 
the  cars  turn  in  from  Market  and  out  at 
Ellison,  there  were  574  turns  more.  The 
aggregate  number  of  turns  on  Main  and 
Washington  Streets  between  Market  and 
Broadway  was,  therefore,  2,462.  This  is  an 
average  of  three  turns  per  car. 

The  .lilneys. 

There  are  twenty  .jitney  lines  operating  in 
Paterson — eleven  local  lines  and  nine  inter- 


FIGURE  15. — Paterson  would  have  an  excellent  system  of  radial  streets  if  they  were  only  sufficiently  wide. 


urban  linos.  Tlic  local  linos  ti'ansi)ori  about, 
ono-hall'  as  many  iiassoiifi'ors  as  iho  ti'olloys. 
In  An.unst,  1921.  the  iraH'ic  Tor  tho  local  lines 
totaled  l.lUlIbbTt)  passengers.  This  is  the 
equivalent  of  a daily  averafie  of  (lOO  passen- 
o-ers  per  bus  for  each  of  the  seventy-two  jit- 
neys operating'  on  the  several  lines.  How 
many  passengers  the  suburban  lines  carried 
is  not  ascertainable. 


FIGURE  16. — The  suburbs  on  the  city’s  fringe  .Tre 
growing  more  rapidiy  than  the  city  itseif. 


The  schedules  of  the  local  lines  call  for 
1S91  single  trips  daily  between  the  hours  of 
<S:b()  a.  m.  and  (!:()()  p.  m.  'I'he  schedules  for 
the  thirty-one  internrban  buses  call  for  194 
single  trips  din  ing  the  same  ten-hour  period. 

The  main  difficulty  with  the  jitneys,  from 
a traffic  point  of  view,  is  that  thei'e  has  been 
no  j)lan  in  laying  out  the  different  routes. 
Each  route  appears  to  have  been  laid  out  with 
sole  reference  to  the  wishes  of  the  original 
applicant  for  the  route  privilege.  That  each 
local  line  has  done  its  best  to  penetrate  into 
the  congested  district  is  evidenced  by  the  fact 
that  every  one  of  them  either  uses  or  crosses 
that  part  of  Main  Street  between  Broadway 
and  Market. 

Two  of  the  local  lines  use  stub  end  tei- 
minals ; the  other  nine  local  lines  come  into 
the  downtown  section,  loop  and  go  out  again. 
Each  of  these  lines  makes  its  own  loop.  The 
internrban  lines  use  four  more  loops  so  that 
in  all  there  are  no  less  than  thirteen  separate 
and  distinct  different  jitney  loops  in  the 
l)usiness  district.  The  result  of  all  these 
loops  is  that  the  jitneys  turn  at  practically 
every  street  intersection.  At  some  of  the 
downtown  intersections,  as  at  Ellison  and 
Washington,  the  jitneys  turn  in  four  differ- 
ent directions. 

There  are  sixteen  street  intersections  in 
the  area  bounded  by  Main,  Market,  Church 
and  Broadway.  At  present  every  one  of 
these  intersections,  except  the  one  at  Church 
and  Broadway  is  used  for  a jitney  turn. 
Altogether,  the  jitneys  make  thirty  different 
turns  at  these  fifteen  street  intersections,  a 
single  turn  lieing  made  at  five  intersections, 
two  turns  at  seven  intersections,  three  turns 
at  one  intersection  and  four  turns  at  two 
intersections. 

The  result  of  this  ciiaotic  arrangement  of 
the  jitney  routes  is  iieedless  congestion  and 
nobodv  SLifl'ers  more  from  it  than  the  patrons 
of  the  jitnevs  and  the  jitneys  themselves. 

Parking. 

The  jiarking  (piestion  has  become,  within 


12 


FIGURE  17. — Madison  Avenue,  one  of  the  city’s  most 
important  thoroughfares  is  cut  in  two  at  Eliison  Street. 


the  last  few  years,  one  of  the  most  aggra- 
vated traffic  problems.  Cars  must  be  parked, 
and  parked  conveniently  to  the  destination  of 
the  people  using  them  but  whei’e  to  ])ark 
them  except  in  the  streets  where  they  de- 
prive other  vehicles  of  the  facility  of  using 
the  streets  is  a problem  which  no  city  has 
solved  satisfactorily. 

Whether  a particular  space  in  the  roadway 
shall  be  occupied  by  a standing  or  by  a mov- 
ing vehicle  is  not  the  question.  Nor  is  it  a 
question  of  whether  a given  vehicle  shall  be 
allowed  to  stand  or  be  forced  to  move.  It 
is  much  broader  than  either  of  these  alter- 
natives for  in  the  more  acute  cases  it  squarely 
presents  the  issue  whether  standing  vehicles 
shall  be  permitted  to  drive  moving  vehicles 
entirely  off  the  streets. 

A vehicle  has  as  much  right  to  stop  as  it 
has  to  move  but  its  right  to  stand  in  the 
streets  is  not  equal  to  its  right  to  circulate. 
The  purpose  of  a street  is  to  serve  as  a high- 
way, not  as  a storage  yard.  To  permit  vehi- 
cles to  stand  in  the  streets  as  long  as  they 
might  choose  results,  where  there  is  a con 
siderable  amount  of  traffic,  in  barricading 
the  streets  to  all  ti'affic.  To  make  parking 
s])aces  of  streets  none  too  wide  to  care  for 
circulating  traffic  must  inevitably  result  in 
diverting  traffic  to  other  streets  where  it  can 


FIGURE  18. — These  cheap  wooden  buildings  are  the 
only  obstruction  preventing  Madison  Avenue  from  becom- 
ing a continuous  crosstown  street. 


move  more  freely. 

The  maximum  number  of  cars  parked  in 
the  business  district  at  one  time  during  the 
day  is  ordinarily  between  12.00  p.  m.  and  1.00 
p.  m.  when  it  sometimes  is  as  high  as  700 
cars.  Many  cars  are  parked  in  the  streets 
the  entire  day.  On  secondary  streets,  this 
is  of  minor  importance  but  when  cars  park 
on  Main  Street  for  five  and  six  hours,  the 
consequences  are  too  serious  to  ignore. 

Main  Street  is  THE  retail  street  and  is 
dependent  as  no  other  downtown  street  for 
its  business  upon  the  volume  of  traffic.  Any- 
thing that  detracts  from  Main  Street’s  acces- 
sibility to  the  buying  public  is  a direct  stab 
at  its  business  prestige;  anything  that  in- 
creases the  number  of  people  frequenting  the 
street  tends  to  enhance  its  potential  oppor- 
tunities for  business. 

Out  of  the  235  cars  pai’ked  on  the  single 
block  on  Main  Street  between  Ellison  and 
Van  Ilouten  Streets  during  the  ten  hours 
from  8:00  a.  m.  to  6:00  p.  m.,  on  June  20, 
1921,  ten  cars  stood  at  the  curb  for  periods 
varying  from  over  two  hours  to  six  hours  and 
five  minutes.  The  total  parked  car  hours  for 
the  235  cars  was  one  hundred  thirty  hours 
and  forty-five  minutes ; that  for  the  ten  cars 
parked  more  than  two  hours,  thirty-three 
hours  and  twenty-seven  minutes.  The  aver- 


FIGURE  19. — Distribution  of  population,  Paterson  and  vicinity  1920.  Each  dot  represents  100  people. 


age  parked  time  for  all  cars  was  thirty-three 
minutes  per  car;  foi’  cars  parked  over  two 
hours,  three  hours  and  twenty  minutes  per 
car.  The  cars  parked  over  two  hours,  though 
they  constituted  only  4.2  per  cent,  of  the  total 
cars  parked  in  the  block,  consumed  28.7  per 
cent,  of  the  total  vehicle  hours  parked  liy  all 
the  cars. 


More  than  half  of  the  machines  parked 
were  jiai'ked  for  less  than  fifteen  minutes. 
Seven-tenths  were  parked  for  less  than  half 
an  hour.  Only  one  machine  in  seven  parked 
longer  than  one  hour.  Yet  the  machines 
parked  more  than  an  hour  consumed  55  per 
cent,  of  the  total  time  parked  by  all  the 
machines. 


14 


, . . ^ ^ FIGURE  21. — The  railroad  gates  at  Market  Street  are 

FIGURE  20. — Some  cars  park  on  the  busiest  streets  all  down  once  every  seven  minutes  during  the  day. 
day  long. 


TABLE  III. 

PARKED  CARS 


Main  Street  Between 

Ellison  and  Van 

Houten  Streets 

<S:00  a.  in.  to  6 

:00  p.  m.,  June 

20,  1921. 

Time  Parked 

Machines 

Per 

Parked  Time 

Per 

( Minutes) 

Number 

Cent. 

Minutes 

Cent, 

1 — 5 

26 

11.1 

106 

1.4 

6 — 10 

94 

35.8 

792 

10.1 

11 — 15 

17 

7.2 

229 

2.9 

16 — 2 0 

21 

8.9 

402 

5.1 

21--  25 

2 

.8 

42 

.5 

26 — 30 

17 

7.2 

503 

6.5 

SI—  4 0 

19 

8.2 

687 

8.7 

41—  5 0 

12 

5.1 

566 

7.2 

51 — 60 

4 

1.7 

235 

3.0 

61 — 90 

14 

6.0 

1064 

13.5 

91-  120 

9 

3.8 

972 

12.4 

121  plus 

10 

4.2 

2247 

28.7 

Total 

235 

100.0 

7845 

100.0 

At  its  busiest  point,  between  Ellison  and 
Van  IJouten  Sti'eets,  Main  Street  passes  an 
averag-e  of  2.25  vehicles  per  minute  per 
traffic  unit  of  roadway  width  during  the 
maximum  traffic  hour.  With  a double  track 
trolley  in  the  center,  its  roadway  width, 
if  free  of  all  obstiaictions  at  the  cuih,  readily 
passes  one  traffic  unit  on  either  side  of  the 


car  tracks,  but  with  vehicles  parked  at  the 
side,  all  traffic  is  forced  onto  the  tracks. 
Every  machine  parked  for  an  hour  elbows  135 
vehicles  out  of  their  alignment,  but  the  an- 
noyance suffered  by  traffic  exceeds  the  em- 
barrassment to  the  machines  hourly  thrown 
upon  the  ti’olley  tracks  by  the  parked  cars. 
One-half  of  the  roadway  width,  and  that  the 


li) 


most  oiroctivo  half  so  far  as  ordinary  vehi- 
cular trairic  is  coucei'ued,  is  c*onii)lotoly  par- 
alyzed so  that  trairic  reqiiirinji'  two  roadway 
units  for  its  free  movement  is  forced  into 
one  where  it  must  fall  into  an  agoniziny 
<ioose-step  behind  trolleys  which,  through  a 
series  of  jerks  and  starts  sometimes  manag’e 


to  cover  oidy  two  or  thi'ee  miles  an  luair. 
The  combined  I’esult  of  these  dilferent  factors 
oi)eratinj?  tojjether  is  that  the  traffic  aionj.': 
Main  Street  often  backs  up  and  fills  the  stieet 
not  only  to  the  first  but  even  the  second  and 
third  cross  street  to  the  rear. 


TABLE  IV. 

TYPICAL  SAMPLES  OF  ‘•PARKINC  HOCS” 

Main  Street  Between  Ellison  and  Van  Houten  Streets 
8:00  a.  in.  to  6:00  p.  ni.,  June  20,  1021 
Time  of  Arrival  Time  of  Departure  Parked  Time 


9:15 

11:35 

Hours 

2 

Minutes 

2 0 

9:40 

11:55 

2 

15 

10:30 

12:56 

2 

2 6 

11:35 

2:05 

o 

30 

11:45 

5:50 

6 

5 

12:25 

5:45 

5 

25 

12:30 

4:00 

o 

30 

1:35 

5:05 

3 

30 

2:15 

5:00 

2 

4 5 

3:15 

5:56 

2 

41 

Total  I’arking  Time  for  Above  10  Cars 23  27 

Average  Parking  Time  Per  Car 3 2 0 


16 


CHAPTER  II. 

REGULATING  TRAFFIC  TO  RELIEVE  STREET  CONGESTION. 


I. — Changing  Character  of  Traffic. 

Very  few  traffic  counts  are  available  to 
enable  one  to  compare  present  day  congestion 
in  Paterson  with  that  of  past  years.  The 
only  clockings  in  existence  are  those  made  in 
connection  with  the  grade  crossing  case  be- 
fore the  Supreme  Court  in  1913.  Although 
these  counts  were  all  made  at  points  v.'here 
streets  cross  the  Main  Line  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
road, they  are  indicative  of  the  general 
traffic  condition  existing  throughout  the  city 
at  that  time. 

Fig.  22  is  a comparative  study  of  the  hourly 
traffic  at  Market  Street  and  the  Erie  Railroad 
in  1913  and  1921. 

This  diagram  shows  that  the  total  traiTic 
during  the  eight  years  has  more  than  doubled. 
In  1913,  the  horse-drawn  vehicles  still  ex- 
ceeded the  automobiles  in  number.  Today 
the  automobile  traffic  alone  is  greater  than 
the  street  traffic  in  1913.  The  motor  truck 
entirely  unknown  in  1913  is  now  more  numer- 
ous than  was  the  automobile  eight  years  ago. 
The  number  of  trolleys  has  remained  about 
constant,  the  increase  in  traffic  being- 
taken  up  by  the  jitneys,  a means  of  ti'ans- 
portation  that  has  been  entirely  developed 
during  the  past  eight  years.  The  jitney 
traffic  on  Market  Street  today,  in  fact,  ex- 
ceeds the  ti'olley  traffic.  The  only  kind  of 
ti-affic  that  has  diminished  is  the  horse-draw)i 
traffic,  the  number  of  wagons  and  cai'riages 
being  today  less  than  one-half  as  numerous 
as  the  street  cars  of  1913. 

One  minute  a street  may  be  jammed  with 
vehicles;  the  next  comparatively  bare  of 
traffic.  Traffic  seems  to  come  in  waves — it 
is  seldom  uniformly  even  in  its  flow.  The 
traffic  of  one  fifteen-minute  pei’iod  as  con- 
ti-asted  with  a succeeding  one  frecpiently 
varies  twenty  or  thirty  per  cent.,  sometimes 
a hundied  pei-  cent.,  and  occasionally  even 


two  or  three  hundred  per  cent. 

The  volume  of  traffic  is  constantly  fluctuat- 
ing; it  varies  every  minute  of  the  day.  And 
yet  the  flow  of  traffic  in  different  streets 
taken  by  hours  is  surprisingly  constant  be- 
tween the  hours  of  8:00  a.  m.  and  6:00  p.  m. 
As  a rule,  during  this  period,  the  traffic 
volume  of  the  maximum  hour  exceeds  the 
flow  of  the  average  hour  by  approximately 
the  same  amount  that  the  traffic  volume  of 
the  average  hour  exceeds  the  flow  of  the 
minimum  hour.  In  either  case,  the  plus  or 
minus  above  or  below  the  average  traffic  hour 
is  about  16  per  cent.  In  other  words,  the 
total  spread  between  the  busiest  and  quietest 
hour  is  equal  to  about  32  per  cent,  of  the 
volume  of  the  average  traffic  hour.  The  total 


FIGURE  22. — The  automobile  truck  and  jitney  were 
both  unknown  in  1913. 


17 


TAHLK  V. 


HOURLY  NUMRKR  OF  VKHK'LKS  AT  DIFFKRKNT  INTERSECTIONS. 

HOUR  Total 


1921 

8-9 

A.  M. 

9-10  10-11 

1 1-12 

12-1 

Total 

1-2  2-3 

Vehicles 

3-4 

4-5 

5-6 

P.  M. 

Vehicles 

Market  and  Main,  Aug.  15 

471 

536 

584 

585 

54  3 

593 

639 

573 

554 

556 

5634 

Van  Houten  and  Main,  .June  2 3 

494 

550 

559 

576 

530 

440 

473 

426 

455 

481 

4984 

IVIain,  B’way  and  West,  Aug.  G 

434 

482 

516 

549 

486 

606 

595 

595 

594 

616 

5473 

Paterson  and  B’way,  Aug.  11 
Bridge,  Church  and  Broad- 

501 

587 

5G4 

610 

520 

647 

597 

506 

588 

571 

5691 

way,  June  13 

482 

589 

576 

623 

573 

611 

578 

611 

583 

657 

5883 

B’way  and  Erie  R.  R.,  June  13 

331 

348 

336 

319 

334 

424 

352 

305 

279 

346 

3374 

Market  and  Ei  ie  R.  R.,  June  14 

535 

57G 

585 

588 

600 

539 

482 

561 

664 

695 

5825 

hourly  number  of  all  kinds  of  vehicles  at 
typical  street  intersections  is  shown  in  Table 

V. 

The  proportion  of  through  traffic  to  cross 
traffic  differs  at  every  intersection.  As 
through  traffic  is  defined  as  the  traffic  on  the 
street  utilized  by  the  larger  number  of  vehi- 
cles, it  is,  of  course,  always  gi’eater  than  the 
cross  traffic.  In  extreme  cases,  as  at  Van 
Houten  and  Main  Streets,  this  disproportion 
between  through  and  cross  traffic  may  be  as 
high  as  twelve  to  one.  At  the  ordinary  down- 
town intersection  on  Broadway  and  Main 
Streets,  about  one-half  of  the  total  traffic  is 
through  traffic;  one-seventh  cross  traffic; 


one-sixth  traffic  turning  to  the  right,  and  one- 
sixth  traffic  turning  to  the  left.  The  per 
cent,  of  traffic  taking  different  directions  at 
typical  intersections  is  shown  in  Table  VI. 

The  relative  congestion  at  different  street 
intersections  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  ap- 
praise not  only  for  the  reason  that  different 
vehicles  obstruct  traffic  in  varying  degrees 
but  because  their  obstructiveness  varies  with- 
in a wide  range  under  different  conditions. 
Were  the  size,  speed  and  flexibility  of  vehi- 
cles the  only  factors  entei'ing  into  their  ob- 
structiveness to  traffic,  then  each  type  of 
vehicle,  whether  it  were  an  automobile,  a 
truck,  a trolley  car  or  a wagon,  could  be 


TABLE  VI. 


PER  CENT  OF  TRAFFIC  TAKIN(;  DIFFERENT  DIRECTIONS. 


Tlnoiigh 


Main  and  Market 34 

Main  and  Van  llonten 71 

Main  and  Ellison Gl 

liroadway  and  Paterson 18 

Broadway,  Bridge  and  Cluiicli  38 


Cross 

Riglit  'rurn 

Belt 

17 

23 

2 6 

6 

13 

10 

13 

15 

8 

25 

1 5 

12 

12 

2 3 

27 

18 


/ 


FLOW  OF  TRAFFIC 

MAIN  & INTERSECTING  STREETS 

8 A M.  - 6 P.M.  TYPICAL  DAY,  AUGUST  1921 
scale:  - relative  number  of  vehicles 


“ DlACf^AM  SHOVYS  PROPORTIONATE  NUMBER  OP  VEHICLES  PASSING  DiPFERCNT 
POINTS  ON  THE  BASIS  OF  1000  PASSING  MAIN  STREET  BETWEEN  VAN  HOUTEN 
& ELLISON  STREETS  IN  BOTH  DIRECTIONS.  TO  ASCERTAIN  EXACT  NUMBER  OF  VEHICLES 
AT  ANY  GIVEN  POINT  MULTIPLY  FIGURE  G'VEN  BY  4.E 


TOTAL  TRAFFIC 


STREET  PLAN 


FIGURE  23. — Note  that  more  traffic  turns  east  from 
Street.  Compare  the  relative  complexity  of  the  traffic 
one-way  traffic. 


Main  Street  into  Market  than  continues  south  on  Main 
movement  at  different  intersections  and  the  effect  of 


19 


H'iven  a weipht  in  proportion  to  its  ohstruct- 
inft'  character.  Tliis  would  enable  one  to 
compute  the  volume  of  tralfic  in  terms  of 
ol)structin{>-  units,  thus  reducin}>:  traffic  con- 
ditions at  different  street  intersections  to  the 
same  common  denominator  each  comparable 
with  the  other. 

Rut  the  subject  is  far  too  complex  to  ad- 
mit of  any  such  ready  solution.  The  very 
same  vehicle  movino-  in  a different  direction 
or  over  different  terrain  may  increase  oi’  de- 
crease its  obstructive  character.  Obviously 
a vehicle  paralleling-  the  main  line  of  travel 
obstructs  traffic  less  than  one  cutting  across 
it  at  right  angles ; a vehicle  tuning  to  the  right 
retards  movement  less  than  one  turning  to 
the  left ; a vehicle  negotiating  an  obtuse  angle 
holds  back  traffic  less  than  one  negotiating 
an  acute  angle;  a vehicle  crossing  a narrow 
street  occupies  the  space  within  the  intersec- 
tion a shorter  time  than  one  crossing  a wide 
street;  a vehicle  traveling  over  level  ground 
demands  less  headway  than  one  descending 
a steep  hill. 

II. — The  Separation  of  Fast  and  Slow  Tralfic. 

There  is  probably  nothing  that  retards  the 
free  movement  of  traffic  more  than  an  inter- 
mingling of  fast  and  slow  vehicles.  The 
speed  of  the  slowest  vehicle  tends  to  become 
the  speed  of  all  the  vehicles  using  a street. 
The  twenty-mile-an-hour  vehicle  cannot  tra- 
vel faster  than  the  five-mile-an-hour  vehicle 
in  front  of  it.  Promiscuously  mixed  traffic 
invariably  results  in  street  congestion. 

With  the  advent  of  the  automobile,  the 
variation  in  speed  has  spread  over  a wide 
]-ange.  For  horse-drawn  vehicles,  it  ranges 
from  3 to  9 miles  an  hour;  for  motor  vehicles 
up  to  50  miles  an  hour.  The  fastest  horse- 
drawn  vehicle  travels  al)out  three  times  as 
fast  as  the  slowest.  The  fastest  automobile, 
on  the  other  hand,  travels  about  twenty  times 
as  fast  as  the  slowest  horse-drawn  vehicle. 
The  intermixtui-e  of  fast  and  slow  vehicles 
causes  congestion — the  slow  vehicles  prevent 


the  fast  ones  from  clearing  off  freely.  Each 
possible  opening  in  the  jam  invites  the  fastei- 
vehicles  to  attempt  dangerous  passages  in 
and  out  among  the  slow  ones. 

Even  though  a commercial  vehicle  may  not 
obstruct  pleasure  traffic  on  account  of  its 
speed,  it  may  do  so  on  account  of  its  size. 
Many  of  the  motor  trucks  manufactui-ed  to- 
day have  an  excessive  width.  They  are  so 
wide  that  instead  of  occupying  six  or  seven 
feet  of  roadway  width,  they  occupy  eight  or 
nine.  Such  a vehicle,  in  other  words,  mono- 
polizes a space  equal  to  that  used  by  two  nor- 
mal traffic  units.  The  disastrous  effect  of 
these  vehicles  on  the  free  movement  of  traf- 
fic in  a street  used  primarily  by  fast  traffic  is 
obvious.  The  presence  of  even  a few  such 
vehicles  has  the  same  effect  as  a narrowing 
of  the  I'oadway  width. 

If  these  wide  vehicles  are  also  slow  vehi- 
cles, and  this  is  generally  the  case,  their 
effect  upon  street  congestion  is  doubly  bad; 
they  not  only  reduce  the  effective  width  of 
roadway  but  they  also  reduce  the  speed  of  all 
traffic.  All  vehicles  in  passing  such  a truck 
are  obliged  to  go  out  of  their  alignment.  If 
the  street  has  a traffic  capacity  of  three  units 
in  either  direction,  and  the  truck  itself  con- 
sumes two  of  the  three,  there  will  lie  a space 
between  the  truck  and  the  center  of  the  street 
for  but  one  traffic  unit.  With  two  or  three 
lines  of  fast  traffic  eager  to  get  through  a 
space  having  a width  adequate  for  but  one 
line  of  traffic,  the  effect  is  not  only  fatal  to  all 
speed  in  movement  but  actually  dangerous  to 
life  and  limb. 

No  attempt  is  made  in  the  downtown  sec- 
tion of  Paterson  to  separate  the  slow  from 
the  fast  traffic.  This  is  responsible,  to  no 
small  degree,  for  many  of  the  traffic  jams 
afflicting  the  downtown  streets.  The  num- 
ber and  per  cent,  of  different  kinds  of  vehicles 
making  up  the  traffic  at  different  points  is 
shown  in  Table  VII. 

Segregating  different  kinds  of  traffic  on 
different  streets  makes  them  safer  for  both 
pedestrians  and  vehicles.  The  mingling  of 


20 


- ^ 

VEHICULAR  TRAFFIC  STREAMS  i 

BROADWAY,  BRIDGE  & CHURCH  STREETS 

8 A M - 6 P M AUGUST  19,1981 

SCALE  - VEHICLES 

p ■ M ■"! 

0 500  1000 


INTERSECTION 


FIGURE  24. — An  offset  intersection  of  streets  reduces  the  traffic  capacity  of  both  streets;  first,  by  necessi- 
tating a longer  path  through  the  intersection;  and  second,  by  requiring  all  cross  traffic  to  make  two  turns  within 
the  intersection. 


21 


TAIJLK  VII. 


KINDS  OF  VKIIH’LES  AT  DIFFERENT  INTERSECTIONS. 


■Autos 

'I’nicks 

.Jitneys  Trolleys 

Nu  111  her 

Wagons 

Total 

Market  aiui  Main 

25!)4 

1124 

660 

1 1 03 

153 

5634 

Van  Honten  and  Main  _ — 

insf) 

1182 

647 

1131 

67 

4982 

Ellison  and  Main  ( lialf  day) 

94  5 

447 

379 

667 

60 

2498 

IMain.  Rroadway  and  West 

2249 

1369 

566 

1 077 

218 

5473 

Paterson  and  Rioadway 

2882 

1838 

160 

470 

341 

5691 

■Rridge,  Church  and  Proad\vay_ 

2885 

1588 

503 

679 

228 

5883 

Broadway  and  Erie  R.  R. 

1906 

681 

1 82 

490 

115 

3374 

Market  and  Erie  R.  R. 

36.S4 

1316 

398 

Per 

322 

cent. 

155 

5825 

Market  and  Main 

46.1 

20.0 

11.8 

19.6 

2.5 

100.0 

Van  Hoiiten  and  Main 

39.2 

23.8 

13.0 

22.7 

1.3 

100.0 

Ellison  and  Main  (half  day) 

37.6 

17.8 

15.4 

26.8 

2.4 

100.0 

Main,  Broadway  and  West 

40.0 

25.5 

10.4 

20.0 

4.1 

100.0 

Paterson  and  Broadway 

50.7 

32.3 

2.8 

8.2 

6.0 

100.0 

Bridge,  Church  and  Broadway- 

49.0 

27.0 

8.6 

11.6 

3.8 

100.0 

Broadway  and  Erie  R.  R. 

56.5 

20.2 

5.4 

14.5 

3.4 

100.0 

Market  and  Erie  R.  R. 

62.5 

22.6 

6.8 

5.5 

2.6 

100.0 

different  kinds  of  traffic  on  the  same  street 
confuses  iDoth  the  driver  and  the  man  on 
foot.  Pedestrians  crossing  a roadway  can 
allow  for  a steady  stream  of  vehicles  passing 
at  an  even  speed.  They  can  allow  for  slow 
traffic  when  all  the  vehicles  are  slow.  They 
can  allow  for  fast  traffic  when  all  the  vehi- 
cles are  fast.  But  traffic  of  an  intermittent 
type  catches  the  pedestrian  off  his  guard. 
This  is  clearly  demonstrated  by  the  large 
number  of  persons  struck  down  by  fast  vehi- 
cles when  passing  behind  of  or  in  front  ol 
a slow  vehicle.  When  crossing  the  roadway 
behind  a standing  or  slow  moving  vehicle, 
the  pedestrian  is  knocked  down  by  a fast 
vehicle  comming  in  the  opposite  direction. 
When  crossing  the  roadway  in  front  of  a 
stationary  or  slow  moving  vehicle,  he  is 
trapped  by  a fast  vehicle  traveling  in  the 
same  direction. 

III. — Parking. 

In  approaching  the  subject  of  pai'king,  it 
is  well  to  remember  that  people  must  park 
their  cars ; that  they  must  park  them  as  con- 
veniently to  their  destination  as  possible ; and 
that  the  length  of  time  they  may  park  must 


be  as  variable  as  the  length  of  time  it  takes 
them  to  perform  their  several  errands.  Many 
people  will  wish  to  park  a few  minutes ; some 
several  hours ; others  all  day ; but  whether  the 
time  is  short  or  long,  they  must  be  enabled 
to  park  somewhere  not  too  far  from  their 
destination. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed,  however,  that 
eveiybody  has  a right  to  park  wherever  he 
chooses  or  for  as  long  a time  as  he  pleases. 
When  the  public  is  embarrassed  more  than 
the  individual  is  convenienced,  then  the  privi- 
lege must  be  cuidailed.  On  some  streets,  it 
may  have  to  be  limited  to  a short  iieriod ; on 
others  entirely  prohibited.  As  the  popula- 
tion and  business  in  a community  increase,  its 
parking  regulations  will  have  to  be  revised — 
the  parking  time  limits  reduced,  and  the  i)ro- 
hibited  zones  enlarged  until  finally  machines 
will,  in  a large  i)ortion  of  the  downtown 
l)usiness  area,  be  allowed  to  stop  merely  for 
a sufficient  time  to  pick  up  and  discharge 
passengers. 

When  that  time  ai'rives,  parking  spaces 
must  be  provided  off  the  public  streets.  To 
a degree  the  need  may  be  met  by  commercial 
gai’ages ; private  parking  spaces ; or  i)erhaps 


22 


VEHICULAR  TRAFFIC  STREAMS 

MAIN,  BROADWAY  & WEST  STREETS 

8 A.M  - 6 P.M  AUGUST  16,1931 

SCALE  - VEHICLES 


PLAN  OF 
INTERSECTION 


BROADWAY 


FIGURE  25. — A five  street  intersection  greatly  complicates  the  movement  of  traffic.  Where  four  streets  inter- 
sect, twelve  directions  are  open  to  traffic;  where  five  streets  intersect,  this  number  is  increased  to  twenty. 


by  depni-tment  stores  and  other  larj>-e  ownei’s 
of  delivery  trucks  placinjj'  their  private 
ag'es  at  the  service  of  tlieir  customers.  Al- 
though these  efforts  are  all  very  laudatory 
and  in  some  instances  appreciably  help  to  fill 
the  need,  they  do  not  fill  the  whole  need. 
Many  persons  cannot  afford  to  store  their 
cars  in  commercial  garages,  even  though  they 
pay  only  one  fee  per  day  for  the  privilege. 
Others,  able  to  pay  a single  fee  per  day  are 
in  and  out  of  their  shops  and  offices  so  many 
times  a day,  that  were  they  to  pay  a fee  each 
time  that  they  withdraw  their  car,  the  cost 
would  amount  to  a very  pretty  penny  each 
year.  Garages  owned  by  department  stores 
and  placed  during  the  day  at  the  disposal  of 
customers  do  not,  of  course,  reach  that  large 
part  of  the  public  which  does  not  shop  every 
day. 

Viewed  solely  from  the  interests  of  moving 
traffic,  all  parking  should  be  prohibited  on 
Main  Street.  Such  a rule  would,  however, 
at  the  present  time  appear  to  be  needlessly 
drastic.  It  would  unquestionably  increase 
the  traffic  capacity  of  Main  Street.  But  in 
depriving  all  vehicles  of  the  right  to  stand  at 
the  curbs,  even  for  short  periods  of  time,  it 
would  prove  a serious  blow  to  retail  business. 

The  real  parking  problem  on  Main  Street 
is  how  to  confine  the  parking  privilege  to 
shoppers  while  excluding  non-shoppers.  IIow 
to  allow  those  who  are  especially  convenienced 
by  parking  on  Main  Street  to  park  there 
while  prohibiting  those  who  are  not  particu- 
larly inconvenienced  by  parking  elsewhere 
from  parking  there  is  an  object  which  can 
probably  be  best  achieved  by  limiting  the 
parking  privilege  on  Main  Street.  A one-half 
hour  time  limit  on  Main  Street,  with  longer 
or  no  time  limits  on  othei'  streets,  would  at 
one  stroke  remedy  one  of  the  worst  abuses 
of  the  parking  privilege  of  this  street — it 
would  put  an  end  to  half  day  and  all  day 
parking.  Limiting  the  parking  privilege  on 
Main  Street  to  thirty  minutes  would  almost 
quadioiple  the  number  of  cars  able  to  pai'k 
on  this  street. 


A large  part  of  the  downtown  congestion  in 
Paterson  is  due  to  machines  cruising  around 
in  seai’ch  of  a place  to  park.  Kveiy  day 
many  people  wishing  to  stop  on  Main  Street 
are  forced  to  park  their  cars  several  blocks 
away  because  the  space  that  should  be  re- 
served for  them  is  monopolized  for  hours  at 
a time  by  the  cars  of  non-shoppers.  In  some 
cases,  these  cars  are  owned  by  shop  keepers 
who  are  so  thoughtless  as  not  to  realize  that 
by  parking  in  front  of  their  premises,  they 
barricade  their  stores  to  prospective  cus- 
tomers. 

The  distance  an  owner  may  reasonably  be 
expected  to  walk  to  his  destination  after 
parking  his  car  varies  more  or  less  in  the 
same  ratio  as  the  time  it  takes  to  perform  his 
errand.  If  his  errand  is  quickly  performed, 
he  will  wish  to  park  immediately  in  front  of 
the  premises;  if  his  errand  is  a long  one,  he 
will  still,  of  course,  wish  to  park  in  front  of 
the  premises,  but  where  this  is  impossible, 
he  may  be  induced  to  park  at  a proportion- 
ately greater  distance.  This  distance  in  a 
city  like  Paterson  does  not  at  the  outside  limit 
much  exceed  a quarter  of  a mile  or  the  equiv- 
alent of  a five-minute  walk.  If  a parking- 
space,  either  in  the  street  or  elsewhere,  is 
not  available  within  a five  minute  walk  of 
one’s  destination,  the  advantage  of  proceed- 
ing thence  in  a car  as  against  a trolley  or 
jitney  is  largely  lost. 

Conditions  have  not,  as  yet,  come  to  such  a 
pass  in  Paterson  that  one  cannot  park  within 
a five  minutes’  walk  of  his  destination.  Even 
when  traffic  is  most  congested,  ample  park- 
ing space  is  to  be  found  south  of  Smith  Street, 
west  of  Pi-ospect  Street,  east  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
road or  north  of  Fair  Street.  But  traffic  is 
growing  .so  fast  that  it  seems  wise  for  the 
city  to  acquire  public  pai-king  spaces  on  the 
fringes  of  the  business  area  while  they  are 
still  obtainable  at  reasonable  prices.  To 
widen  streets  to  provide  additional  space  for 
parked  cars  is  unthinkable.  It  is  entirely 
too  expensive.  To  buy  exclusive  parking- 
spaces  is  much  cheaper. 


24 


FIGURE  26. — Parked  cars  take  up  more  roadway  space  in  some  streets  than  do  moving  cars.  Note  the  con- 
gestion of  parked  cars  on  the  busiest  streets  while  the  streets  immediately  to  one  side  are  comparatively  unused. 


These  public  parking  spaces  should  be  ac- 
quired at  strategic  points  where  the  half  day 
and  all  day  cars  could  be  parked  without 
entering  and  congesting  the  business  district. 
In  other  words,  they  should  be  purchased  out- 
side of  the  area  bounded  by  Broadway,  Main, 
Market  and  the  Erie  Railroad.  The  amount 
of  land  acquired  should  be  determined  with 
a view  to  accommodating  all  vehicles  parked 
I'oi'  more  than  an  hour  so  that  all  the  down- 
town streets,  insofar  as  parking  is  permitted 
on  them,  can  be  reserved  exclusively  for  the 


use  of  shoppers. 

Except  on  the  south  side  of  Market  Street, 
cars  are  ranked  in  Paterson,  that  is,  the 
length  of  the  car  parallels  the  curb.  On 
Market  Street,  however,  the  width  of  the 
street  admits  of  cars  being  parked  on  one 
side  and  ranked  on  the  other.;  that  is,  on  one 
side  the  length  of  the  car  is  at  light  angles 
to  the  curb ; on  the  other  side,  parallel  to  the 
curb.  On  the  parked  side,  the  cars  are  in- 
variably backed  into  place.  Parking  has  the 
very  distinct  advantage  over  ranking  in  that 


the  same  street  lenjith  accoinniodales  ai)i)rox- 
iniately  double  the  mimber  of  vehicles.  At 
the  rate  at  which  trad'ic  is  increasinjr,  it  is 
only  a question  of  time  how  soon  the  parking’ 
of  cars  on  kTarket  Street  will  have  to  be  dis- 
continued for  ranking’  but  as  long’  as  the  cars 
are  parked,  they  should  be  parked  with  the 
front  rather  than  the  rear  next  to  the  curb. 
It  is  much  easier  to  drive  into  than  to 
back  into  a space  between  two  cars. 

The  present  prohibited  parking’  zones  are 
very  indifferently  enforced.  And  yet  these 
zones  should  be  extended  as  soon  as  possible. 
Among  the  suggested  additions  are ; 

(1)  — Main  Street  between  Broadway  and 
Van  Houten,  east  side. 

(2)  — Market  Street  between  Main  and 
Union,  both  sides. 

(3)  — Broadway  between  Main  and  Wash- 
ington, both  sides. 

(4)  — Ellison  Street  between  Main  and 
Washington,  both  sides. 

(5)  — Van  Houten  Street  between  Main  and 
Washington,  both  sides. 

(6)  — Park  Avenue,  between  Main  Line, 
Erie  R.  R.  and  Carroll  Street,  both  sides. 

Park  Avenue,  because  of  its  narrowness 
and  occupancy  by  a double  track  trolley  pre- 
sents a unique  problem.  Cars  parked  at  a 
distance  from  the  curb  as  well  as  wide  trucks 
frequently  create  a condition  that  completely 
blocks  all  trolley  traffic.  Until  the  curbs  are 
set  back,  as  suggested  elsewhere  in  this  re- 
port, making  the  I’oadway  32  feet  wide  so 
that  trolleys  will  be  given  an  unobstructed 
]’ight  of  way,  whether  cars  are  or  are  not 
parked  at  the  curb,  all  parking  on  Park  Ave- 
nue should  be  prohibited  from  the  Main  Line 
of  the  Erie  liailroad  to  Cari’oll  Street. 

In  some  cases,  the  narrowness  of  the 
streets,  in  other  cases,  the  amount  of  trolley 
traffic  make  these  enlargements  to  the  pro- 
hibited zones  desirable. 

IV.— 4holley  Stops. 

The  northbound  trolleys  on  Main  Street 
average  a stop  every  fifty-three  seconds  dur- 


ing the  day  at  Bi’oadway.  A few  stops  may 
last  Cor  sevei’al  seconds,  but  some  continue 
for  thirty,  forty  or  fifty  seconds.  Quite  fi’e- 
quently  a car  does  not  make  its  getaway  until 
the  car  following  it  has  pulled  up.  Then  one 
stop  merges  with  another,  sometimes  with 
two,  three  or  four  others.  In  this  way, 
traffic  may  be  blocked  at  a single  time  for 
nearly  a couple  of  minutes. 

Some  hours  the  trolley  stops  at  Broadway 
and  Main  aggregate  thirty  minutes.  This 
is  fifty  per  cent,  of  the  time.  The  average 
throughout  the  day  is  thirty  per  cent. 

The  trolley  stops  at  Main  and  Broadway, 
though  more  frequent  and  prolonged  in  their 
duration  than  at  other  intersections,  are 
illustrative  of  the  effect  of  all  trolley  stops 
upon  street  traffic.  The  trolley  stops  in  the 
downtown  section  are  altogether  too  numer- 
ous— they  are  too  numerous  to  permit  the 
best  operation  of  the  trolleys;  they  are  too 
numerous  to  give  the  public  the  best  trolley 
sei’vice;  they  are  so  numerous  as  seriously 
to  retard  the  movement  of  all  street  ti’affic. 
For  these  reasons,  the  relocation  of  all  trolley 
stops  in  the  congested  district  must  be  re- 
viewed. 

Fig.  30  presents  a program  for  the  elimina- 
tion of  all  unnecessary  stops  and  the  estab- 
lishment of  such  new  ones  as  the  convenience 
of  the  trolleys  demand. 

V. — Re-routing  of  Trolleys  and  .Jitneys. 

To  relieve  the  congestion  of  street  traffic 
caused  by  the  trolleys  and  jitneys  in  the 
downtown  section,  it  is  necessai’y: 

1.  — To  cut  out  all  superfluous  turning  from 
one  street  into  another. 

2.  — To  make  as  many  of  the  necessary 
tui’ns  as  possible  on  sti’eets  other  than  Main 
Street. 

3.  — To  curtail  the  number  of  stops  to  the 
minimum  number  that  will  adequately  serve 
the  passengers  carried. 

4.  — To  reduce  the  distance  travelled  by  the 
several  lines  in  the  downtown  section  to  the 
minimum  requirements  demanded  by  the 


26 


FIGURE  27. — Eliminating  the  superfluous  loops  and 
stops  will  reduce  the  time  in  passing  through  the  business 
district. 

several  routes. 

5. — To  eliminate  all  unnecessary  transfers 
by  securing  a better  adaptation  of  routes  to 
the  service  demanded ; that  is,  by  routing  as 
many  passengers  as  possible  through,  with- 
out change  of  car  or  jitney,  from  point  of 
origin  to  point  of  destination. 

The  program  deemed  best  suited  to  carry 
out  these  objects  include: 

1.  — The  through-routing  of  as  many  of  the 
trolley  and  jitney  lines  as  practicable; 

2.  — The  abandonment  of  all  looping, 
whether  of  trolleys  or  jitneys,  in  the  area 
between  Broadway,  Main,  Market  and  the 
Main  Line  of  the  Erie;  and 

3. ^ — The  establishment  of  loops  outside  the 
area  bounded  by  Broadway,  Main,  Market  and 
the  Main  Line  of  the  Erie  for  such  lines  as 
it  may  prove  impracticable  to  through-route. 

At  the  very  start,  let  it  be  said  that  routing 
the  jitneys  and  trolleys  through  from  one 
side  of  the  city  to  another  need  not  disturb 
the  present  arrangements  regarding  the  fare 
charged.  A second  fare  may  be  collected  in 
either  case  after  the  business  district  has 
l)een  passed  through. 

No  suggestion  is  made  in  this  report 
relative  to  a segregation  of  the  jitney  and 
trolley  lines  on  separate  streets  in  the  resi 
deuce  districts.  The  only  changes  recom- 
mended as  to  routes  are  those  which  will 


FIGURE  28. — Note  the  wide  divergence  in  the  time 
consumed  by  the  trolleys  on  the  two  sides  of  the  street. 


promote  a better  arrangement  of  traffic  with- 
in the  congested  district. 

Features  of  Proposed  Plan. 

The  re-routing  plans  herewith  suggested 
would  entirely  do  away  with  the  Broadway 
and  City  Hall  trolley  loops.  The  cars  that 
cannot  be  routed  through  the  city  from  one 
side  to  another,  will  be  routed  around  the  loop 
bounded  by  Market  Street,  Railroad  Avenue, 
Grand  Street  and  Main  Street.  This  loop, 
which  is  hereafter  referred  to  as  the  Grand 
Street  loop,  is  considerably  larger  than  either 
the  Broadway  or  City  Hall  terminal  loops. 
It  is  for  that  reason  less  susceptible  of  being 
congested.  It  is  also  off  the  most  travelled 
portion  of  Main  Street.  The  lines  routed 
over  this  loop  would  be  the  Passaic,  Paterson, 
Totowa  and  part  of  the  Hawthorne. 

The  Singac  trolley  line  would  be  joined  with 
the  Hawthorne  line  and  made  a through 
route.  The  Riverside  and  Main  lines  would 
also  be  joined  and  routed  as  a single  line.  The 
Hudson  River  line  would  be  left  undisturbed, 
except  that  after  crossing  Main  Street  at 
Broadway,  it  would  not  go  around  the  loop 
but  instead  of  this,  it  would  switch  back  and 
go  out  over  its  route  again.  The  .Broadway, 
Park  Avenue,  Haledon  and  Governor  lines 
would  be  left  as  at  present. 


27 


FIGURE  29. — Present  trolley  stops.  Too  frequent  stops 
not  only  retard  the  speed  of  the  trolleys  but  blockade 
traffic. 

The  local  jitney  lines  would  all  be  made 
into  through  lines  with  the  exception  of  the 
Broadway  line.  The  suburban  lines  would  be 


left  substantially  as  at  present  with  the  ex- 
ception of  the  Montclair-Newark  line,  which 
would  not  be  allowed  to  cross  Market  Street. 


PRESENT  ROUTES  AND  PROPOSED  RE-ROUTINOS. 
1. — Trolley  Lines. 


Proposed : 

Singac-IIawthorne  Line. 

Market,  Main,  Broadway,  Bridge. 


Hawthorne  Line  (short  route.) 

Broadway,  Main,  Market,  Railroad,  Grand. 
Main. 

Riverside-Main  Line. 

Bridge,  Broadway,  Main. 


Present : 

Singac  Line. 

Market,  City  Hall  Loop,  Ellison. 

Hawthorne  Line. 

Broadway,  Main,  City  Hall  Loop. 

Hawthorne  Line. 

(See  above.) 

Riverside  Line. 

Bridge,  Bioadway,  Main,  City  Hall  Loop, 
Main. 

Main  Line. 

Main,  Broadway  Ix)op,  Main. 


28 


Paterson  Line. 

Main,  Market,  Railroad,  Grand,  Main. 
Passaic  Line. 

Grand,  Main,  Market,  Railroad. 
Totowa  Line. 

Main,  Market,  Railroad,  Grand,  Main. 

Hudson  River  Line. 

Broadway,  switch  back  to  Broadway. 

Broadway  Line. 

No  change. 

Park  Avenue  Line. 

No  change. 


Paterson  Line. 

Main,  Broadway  Loop,  Main. 

Passaic  Line. 

Railroad,  Market,  Main,  Grand. 

Totowa  Line. 

Main,  City  Hall  Loop,  Main. 

Hudson  River  Line. 

Broadway,  Broadway  Loop,  Main,  Broad- 
way. 


Governor  Line. 
No  change. 


2. — .Jitneys. 


Main-Riverside  Line. 

River,  Bridge,  Broadway,  Church,  Market, 
Clark,  Smith,  Main. 


Hawthorne-Beech  and  Clay  Line. 

Bridge,  Broadway,  Church,  Ellison, 
Straight. 


Haledon-Governor  Line. 

West,  Broadway,  Washington,  Ellison, 
Straight,  Van  Houten,  Carroll. 


Totowa-Park  Avenue  Line. 

West,  Broadway,  Washington,  Market, 
Paik  Avenue. 


Main  Line. 

Main,  Van  Houten,  Prospect,  Ellison,  Main. 
Riverside  Line. 

River,  Bridge,  Broadway,  Washington,  Elli- 
son, Main,  Broadway. 

Hawthorne  Line. 

Bridge,  Broadway,  Washington,  Ellison, 
Colt,  Market,  Washington,  Ellison,  Main, 
Broadway. 

Beech  and  Clay  Line. 

Straight,  Park,  Market,  Washington, 
Broadway,  Main,  Market. 

Plaledon  Line. 

West,  Main,  Van  Houten,  Church,  Market, 
Ei-ie  Station,  out  Market. 

Govei'nor  Line. 

Broadway,  Washington,  Ellison,  Colt,  Mar- 
ket, Union,  Smith,  Hamilton,  Ward,  Main, 
Grand,  Main,  Broadway. 

Totowa  Line. 

West,  Main,  Market,  Washington,  Plllison, 
Main. 


2!) 


Sin.^’ac-Markct  Line. 
kTarket  from  Spruce  to  Dundee  Lake. 


IL'oadway  Line. 

Broadway,  Church,  Ellison,  Washington, 
Broadway. 

Bloomfield  Line. 

Main,  Smith,  Clark,  Ward,  Main. 

Montclair-Newark  Line. 

Main,  Smith,  Clark,  Ward,  Main. 


Ridgewood  Line. 

Van  Houten,  Church,  Ellison. 

Butler  Line. 

No  change. 

Midvale  Line. 

No  change. 

Greenwood  Lake  Line. 

No  change. 

Boonton  Line. 

No  change. 

Riverdale  Line. 

No  change. 

Oakland  Line. 

No  change. 

Advantages  of  the  Proposed  Plan. 

Through-routing  will  enable  people  to 
travel  from  one  side  of  the  city  to  another 
without  transferring  to  another  bus  or  trol- 
ley. Through-routing  will  speed  up  the  oper- 
ation of  both  the  jitneys  and  the  trolleys. 
The  jitneys,  being  removed  from  the  trolley 
blockades  on  Main  Street,  will  ti’avel  faster; 
and  the  trolleys,  having  Main  Street  to  them- 
selves, free  from  inter fei'ence  by  the  jitneys, 
will  also  travel  faster.  The  elimination  of 


Park  Avenue  fane. 

Park,  Market,  Washington,  Broadway, 
Main,  Market. 

Singac  Line. 

Market,  Washington,  Ellison. 

Market  Street  Line. 

Straight,  Park,  Market  to  Prospect. 

Broadway  Line. 

Broadway,  Washington,  Ellison,  Colt,  Mar 
ket.  Main,  Broadway. 

Bloomfield  Line. 

Main,  Market  to  Clark,  back  by  same  I'oute. 

Montclair-Newark  Line. 

Main,  Ward,  Hamilton,  Market,  Washing- 
ton, Ellison,  Church,  Market,  Union,  Smith, 
Ward,  Main. 

Ridgewood  Line. 

Van  Houten,  Washington,  Ellison,  Church, 
Van  Houten. 


numerous  turns  will  accelerate  the  passage  of 
both  trolleys  and  jitneys  through  the  con- 
gested business  district. 

Through-routing  will  reduce  street  con- 
gestion. 

Under  the  proposed  plan,  only  eight  of  the 
sixteen  street  intei’sections  in  the  area  bound- 
ed by  Main,  Market,  Church  and  Broadway 
will  be  used  for  jitney  turns,  all  turns  being- 
abandoned  at  the  following  intei'sections : 
Main  and  Van  Houten,  Main  jind  Ellison, 
Main  and  Market,  Hamilton  and  Market, 


30 


FIGURE  31. — Per  cent,  of  traffic  delayed  by  trolleys. 
Broadway  and  Main  Streets,  November  3,  1921. 


FIGURE  32. — Length  of  traffic  delays  caused  by  trolleys. 
Broadway  and  Main  Streets,  November  3,  1921. 


Washing-ton  and  Van  Houten,  Colt  and  Mar- 
ket, Colt  and  Ellison.  But  one  new  turn  will 
be  created,  that  at  Church  and  Broadway. 
The  present  jitney  schedule  for  a normal  ten- 


intersections  be  considered  instead  of  merely 
the  jitneys  turning,  a still  more  favorable 
result  is  obtained.  Under  the  present  jitney 
schedule  11,103  jitneys  pass  through  these  16 


TABLE  VIII. 


Jitney  Traffic  at  Different  Street  Intersections  Downtown  Paterson. 


8:00  A.  M.  to  6:00  P.  M.  Typical  Day,  August,  1921. 


Intersections. 

Broadway  and  Main 

Van  Houten  and  Main 

Ellison  and  Main 

Market  and  Main 

Hamilton  and  Market 

Union.  Mai  ket  and  Washington 

Ellison  and  Washington 

Washington  and  Van  Houten__ 

Washington  and  Broadway 

Colt  and  Market 

Colt  and  Ellison 

Church  and  Market 

Ellison  and  Church 

Church  and  Van  Houten 

Clark  and  Market 

Broadway  and  Church 

Total 


Jitney  Turns. 


Jitneys  Passing. 


Present 

Proposed 

Present 

Proposed 

Plan. 

Plan. 

Plan. 

Plan. 

895 

371 

891 

371 

225 

— 

1039 

— 

458 

— 

1154 

— 

442 

— 

942 

82 

40 



608 

82 

515 

196 

943 

278 

632 

246 

793 

442 

14 



628 

442 

539 

442 

917 

442 

230 

— 

763 

278 

230 

— 

284 

246 

115 

298 

603 

576 

54 

234 

129 

682 

89 

14 

89 

532 

5 

00 

568 

576 

518 

768 

614 

4483 

2-618 

11,103 

5643 

hour  day  from  8:00  A.  M.  to  6:00  P.  M.  calls 
for  4483  jitney  turns  at  these  intersections. 
Six  intersections  will  have  but  a single  jitney 
tuim  and  three,  two  jitney  turns.  The  total 
number  of  turns  will  be  but  12  as  against  30 
today. 

If  the  aggregate  traffic  at  the  different 


intersections  every  day.  Under  the  proposed 
plan,  this  number  is  reduced  to  5,643 — almost 
fifty  per  cent,  of  the  present  traffic. 

Table  VIII  shows  in  detail  exactly  what  the 
proposed  plan  will  do  to  relieve  congestion  at 
different  street  intersections. 

The  abandonment  of  the  City  Hall  trolley 


loop  would  nuiko  it  possible  to  make  the  block 
on  \\'ashinj>’ton  Street  between  Market  and 
Kllison  Sti’eets  a two-way  street  and  thus 
eliminate  a considerable  amount  of  the  pres- 
ent cong-estion  on  Market  Street  due  to  the 
traffic  from  Union  Street  and  Hamilton 


Washinjiton,  as  well  as  the  crossin^fs  at  Mai- 
ket  and  Kllison  Streets  would  be  completely 
abandoned.  With  these  loute  chanjjes,  the 
numbei’  of  cars  turning'  at  Market  and  Main 
would  be  increased  from  640  to  714,  but  the 
number  of  left  hand  turns  would  be  dimin- 


TABLE  IX. 


Number  of  Trolley  Cars  Per  Hour  on  Dillerenl  Lines,  November  .1,  1921. 


Line. 

9-1  (1 

10-11 

11-12 

12-1 

1-2 

2~?> 

3-4 

4-5 

5-6 

H-7 

Total 

Broadway 

13 

11 

12 

11 

13 

12 

12 

1 4 

13 

13 

125 

Governor 

5 

6 

5 

0 

5 

5 

6 

6 

6 

5 

S5 

Haledon 

8 

8 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

9 

11 

8 

89 

Hawthorne 

5 

5 

t) 

5 

5 

5 

5 

6 

8 

5 

55 

Hudson  River 

4 

5 

4 

3 

4 

5 

4 

4 

4 

4 

41 

Main 

5 

7 

7 

0 

4 

7 

6 

6 

5 

9 

62 

Passaic 

4 

4 

3 

4 

5 

4 

3 

3 

5 

3 

38 

Paterson 

5 

6 

7 

0 

7 

5 

6 

6 

5 

7 

6 0 

Park  Avenue 

12 

12 

11 

1 1 

10 

13 

11 

15 

17 

15 

127 

Riverside 

6 

6 

6 

5 

0 

6 

6 

7 

8 

7 

63 

Singac 

4 

4 

3 

4 

3 

4 

3 

3 

7 

4 

39 

Totowa 

9 

8 

7 

8 

7 

7 

8 

11 

15 

12 

92 

Total 

80 

82 

80 

78 

78 

82 

80 

90 

104 

92 

846 

Street,  both  one-way  streets  being  obliged  to 
join  the  traffic  on  Market  Street  in  order  to 
cross  it.  With  Washington  Street  a two-way 
street,  the  traffic  into  Union  Street  could 
cross  Market  Street  at  Washington  Street  and 
thus  obviate  the  offset  now  necessary  on 
Market  Street. 

The  jitney  traffic,  as  considered  in  this  and 
following  tables,  is  based  upon  the  operating 
schedules.  Traffic  counts,  however,  show 
that  in  many  instances  there  is  a considerable 
discrepancy  between  the  actual  and  the 
scheduled  service;  the  operating  schedules 
call  for  more  frequent  service  than  is  actually 
provided  by  the  jitneys. 

The  plan  proposed  for  the  re-routing  of  the 
trolleys  would  reduce  the  number  of  turns  on 
Main  Street  from  188H  to  1194.  The  turns 
at  Van  Ilouten  and  Main,  Ellison  and  Main, 
Market  and  Washington,  and  Ellison  and 


ished  from  425  to  362.  The  number  of  cars 
tui  ning  at  Broadway  and  Main  would  be  de- 
creased from  899  to  598.  The  aggregate 
number  of  turns  on  Main  and  Washington 
Streets  between  Market  and  Broadway  would 
practically  be  cut  in  two,  being  1312  under 
the  ijroposed  plan  as  against  the  present 
number  of  2462. 

Table  IX  shows  the  number  of  trolley  cars 
operated  each  hour  fi'om  9:00  A.  M.  to  7:00 
P.  M.  on  each  line  November  3,  1921. 

Through-routing  will  enable  the  jitneys  and 
trolleys  to  make  the  same  number  of  ti'ips 
per  day  as  at  present  on  a smaller  mileage  or 
an  increased  number  of  trips  per  day  without 
any  increase  in  mileage.  In  case  of  the 
jitneys,  this  advantage  would  be  especially 
noteworthy,  amounting  to  8.2  per  cent,  of 
the  aggregate  mileage  on  the  local  lines. 

At  present,  the  local  jitneys  consume  one- 


32 


TROLLEY  TRAFFIC  STREAMS 

DOWNTOWN,  PATERSON 

9A,M-7P,M  NOV.  I.I9EI 


FIGURE  33. — The  trolleys  in  crossing,  turning  on  and  off  Main  Street  greatly  aggravate  the  traffic  problem. 
Some  hours  the  northbound  traffic  on  Main  Street  is  blocked  at  Broadway  for  an  aggregate  of  thirty  minutes. 


twelfth  of  their  total  mileage  in  turning 
around  to  go  back  over  their  respective 
routes.  In  through-routing,  there  will  be  no 
useless  turning  around — each  jitney  will  dis- 
charge its  inbound  load  while  picking  up  its 
outbound  load.  Through-routing  will  save 


the  jitneys  one-twelfth  of  their  time,  one- 
twelfth  of  their  gas,  one-twelfth  of  their  re- 
pairs, one-twelfth  of  the  wear  and  tear  on 
their  machines — all  without  any  loss  in 
revenue. 

Table  X shows  the  mileage  that  the  several 


33 


FIGURE  34. — Abandonment  of  the  Broadway  and  City  Hall  Loops  will  permit  all  cars  to  run  through  from 
Broadway  to  Market  Street.  This  will  accelerate  the  speed  of  the  trolleys  as  well  as  of  all  other  traffic.  Note 
the  much  larger  number  of  trolleys  passing  the  Erie  Station. 


jitney  lines  would  save  under  the  i)roposed 
re-routing  scheme. 

The  commuting  traffic  is  at  pi-esent  very 
inadequately  served  by  both  the  jitneys  and 
the  trolleys.  There  appears  to  be  no  good 
reason  why  a larger  number  of  either  cannot 


be  brought  nearer  to  the  Erie  Station. 

Under  the  re-routing  scheme  suggested,  all 
the  ti’olleys  that  now  pass  the  station  would 
continue  doing  so.  In  addition,  some  of  the 
cars  on  the  Hawthorne  Line  and  all  of  the 
cars  on  the  Totowa  and  Paterson  lines  would 


34 


JITNEY  TRAFFIC  STREAMS 

DOWNTOWN  PATERSON 

BA.tvI.  6P.M  TYPICAL  DAY  AUGUST  1*521 


FIGURE  35. — The  business  section  constitutes  today  one  huge  turning  table  for  the  different  jitney  lines. 
There  are  no  less  than  thirteen  separate  and  distinct  loops  in  all,  the  Jitneys  turning  at  every  street  inter- 
section but  one. 


be  bi’ought  right  past  the  station. 

A like  improvement  would  be  effected  in 
the  case  of  the  jitney  service. 

The  per  cent,  of  jitneys  that  would  go  with- 


in different  distances  of  the  Erie  Station  un- 
der the  proposed  plan  as  contrasted  with  the 
present  plan,  is  indicated  in  Table  XI. 


FIGURE  36. — All  the  jitneys  are  removed  from  Main  Street  thus  reiieving  them  from  constant  annoyance  by 
slowiy  moving  trolieys.  Note  how  the  jitneys  are  distributed  on  the  several  streets  so  as  better  to  serve  traffic 
as  well  as  to  avoid  congestion. 


TABLE  X. 


JITNEY  MILES  SAVED  UNDER 


Present 

Line. 

Mileage. 

560 

Haledon-Governor  82  6 

Singac-Market 204 

Main-Riverside 1368 

Hawthorne-Beech  and  Clay 4 32 

Broadway  337 

Total 372  7 


PROPOSED 

RE-ROUTING 

PLAN. 

Proposed 

Jitney 

Per  cent  Jitney 

Jitney 

Miles 

Miles 

Mileage. 

Saved. 

Saved, 

444 

116 

20.8 

779 

47 

5.7 

193 

11 

5.6 

1313 

55 

4.0 

366 

66 

15.7 

326 

11 

3.2 

3421 

306 

8.2 

TABLE  XL 


Pei'  Cent,  of  Jitneys  Going  Within  Different  Distances  of  Erie  Station  Under  Present  and 

Proposed  Plans  of  Re-Routing. 


Distance  from  Station.  Present  Plan 

Right  past 29.4 

1 block  — 

2 blocks  — 

3 blocks  20.4 

4 blocks  14.8 

5 blocks  35.4 


100. 


At  present  71  per  cent,  of  the  jitneys  that 
operate  on  the  local  lines  do  not  come  nearer 
than  three  blocks  to  the  station.  More  than 
a third  of  the  jitneys  do  not  come  nearer  than 
Market  and  Main  or  Washington  and  Ellison. 
Nobody  using  a jitney  would  under  the  pro- 
posed plan  have  to  walk  more  than  two  blocks 
to  the  station.  All  the  jitneys  that  would 
not  pass  the  station  would  pass  either  Clark 
and  Market,  Paterson  and  Ellison  or  Church 
and  Ellison. 

A proper  re-routing  of  jitneys  and  trolleys 
will  benefit  the  whole  business  district. 
Traffic  at  Broadway  and  Main  is  so  congested 
and  has  been  for  so  long  that  machines  in 
passing  in  and  out  of  the  business  district  are 


r Cent  Proposed  Plan  Per  Cent. 

26.6 

55.0 

18.4 


100.0 


with  increasing  frequency  short-circuiting 
Main  Street  and  taking  other  routes.  To 
some  it  may  be  as  much  a shock  as  a surprise 
to  learn  that  even  today  there  are  more  vehi- 
cles at  half  a dozen  points  in  Paterson  than 
at  Broadway  and  Main.  Though  the  trolleys 
are  the  greatest  contributing  cause  to  Main 
Sti'eet  congestion,  the  jitneys  also  contribute 
their  shares  as  is  witnessed  by  the  fact  that 
when  the  present  schedule  is  lived  up  to,  1154 
jitneys  pass  the  intersection  of  Ellison  and 
Main  Streets  every  day  between  8:00  A.  M. 
and  6:00  P.  M.  If  Main  Street  is  to  retain 
its  position  as  the  city’s  principal  shopping- 
street,  something  must  be  done  to  relieve  the 
congestion  on  it. 


37 


FIGURE  37. — The  Falls  in  summer.  This  beautiful  cataract,  the  greatest  scenic  asset  of  the  entire  State  of 
New  Jersey,  is  unapproached  by  a single  thoroughfare,  being  situated  in  what  practically  amounts  to  the  city’s 
back-yard.  The  Fallsway  Memorial  would  redeem  our  past  indifference  to  this  wonderful  heritage. 


Without  boldly  attacking  the  jitney,  trolley 
and  parking  problems,  congestion  in  the 
business  district  will  go  from  bad  to  worse. 
To  meet  the  issue  now  will  cause  less  incon- 


venience and  embarassment  to  business  inter- 
ests and  the  public  generally  than  to  postpone 
it  for  nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  delay. 


38 


CHAPTER  III. 

FUNCTIONAL  STREET  PLANNING. 


With  the  adoption  of  a city-wide  compre- 
hensive zoning  ordinance  regulating  not  only 
the  use  to  which  property  may  be  put  but 
the  intensity  of  its  development  both  as  to 
the  height  and  size  of  buildings,  Paterson  is 
for  the  first  time  in  its  history  in  a position 
to  adopt  a functional  street  plan. 

With  zoning,  each  street  may  be  designed 
to  serve  some  specialized  pui*pose.  When 
the  use  to  which  buildings  may  be  put  is  left 
unregulated  all  streets  have  to  be  planned 
alike.  When  it  is  not  known  where  industry 
or  business  is  to  go,  every  street  has  to  be 
designed  in  such  a manner  as  to  serve  all 
uses  of  property  equally  well.  The  inevitable 
result  is,  of  course,  that  no  use  is  served  to 
the  best  advantage. 

Streets  of  a uniform  type  and  pattern  have 
to  be  laid  out  in  all  parts  of  the  town,  despite 
the  fact  that  the  street  needs  of  the  several 
parts  are  materially  different. 

Directness  which  is  so  desirable  a quality 
in  business  streets  is  not  a prerequisite  for 
minor  residential  streets.  In  fact,  it  often 
robs  such  streets  of  their  distinctive  charac- 
ter. One  of  the  chief  charms  of  the  many 
attractive  suburban  developments  plotted  in 
recent  years,  is  the  cosy  domestic  character 
of  the  local  streets  in  which  the  monotony  of 
endless  straight  wind-swept  thoroughfares 
has  given  way  to  short  streets  of  narrow 
width. 

In  a residential  neighborhood  the  traffic 
being  of  a local  character  and  consequently  of 
no  great  moment,  there  is  no  imperative  de- 
mand for  wide  roadways.  Indeed,  wide  road- 
ways are  a liability  in  residence  districts. 
Every  additional  foot  of  roadway  space  over 
the  minimum  necessary,  increases  the  cost  of 
his  house  to  the  home-owner  and  makes 
home-owning  that  much  more  difficult  and 
rare,  for  the  home-owner  pays  as  truly  for 
the  land  within  the  street  lines  as  for  the 
land  within  the  lot  lines.  A wide  street  costs 


him  more  than  a narrow  street,  just  as  a big 
lot  costs  him  more  than  a small  one. 

Our  towns  have  paid  dearly  for  parsimoni- 
ous town  planning.  The  price  they  have  paid 
for  street  widenings  during  the  last  fifty 
years  is  enormous.  But  the  cost  of  widening 
a few  miles  of  streets  which  were  originally 
laid  out  too  narrow,  fabulous  as  it  is,  would 
look  small  compared  to  the  value  of  the  land 
and  pavements  wasted  in  miles  and  miles  of 
unnecessarily  wide  residential  streets. 

A Scientific  Paving  Policy. 

Each  street  should  obviously  be  paved  with 
the  kind  of  pavement  not  only  best  adapted 
to  the  kind  of  traffic  served  by  the  street, 
but  also  best  suited  to  the  needs  of  the  ad- 
joining property.  A brick  or  granite  pave- 
ment is  not  wanted  on  a residential  street, 
neither  is  a bituminous  pavement  wanted  on 
a heavy  warehouse  street.  The  noise  of  the 
first  destroys  the  quiet  of  the  neighborhood, 
while  the  wear  on  the  second  soon  ruins  the 
pavement. 

It  is  most  extravagant  and  wasteful  to 
accommodate  the  strength  of  every  pavement 
whether  it  be  in  a residence,  business  or  in- 
dustrial district  to  the  weight  of  the  heaviest 
vehicle  in  the  city.  And  yet  without  zoning, 
that  was  the  policy  Paterson  was  practically 
forced  to  adopt.  A proper  zoning  system  in 
confining  different  districts  to  different  uses, 
goes  a long  way  in  segregating  different  kinds 
of  traffic  by  automatically  tending  to  exclude 
heavy  vehicles  from  residence  districts,  and 
to  restrict  them  to  business  streets. 

Residential  streets  should  not  be  asked  to 
provide  pavements  for  vehicles  which  have 
assumed  the  weight  and  proportions  of  a 
freight  car.  The  twelve,  fifteen  and  twenty- 
ton  truck  not  only  injures  the  wearing  sur- 
face of  a light  pavement,  it  also  cracks  and 
breaks  the  base  of  the  pavement.  A pave- 


FIGURE  38. — During  some  hours  the  railroad  gates  at 
Market  Street  are  down  nine,  ten  and  even  twelve  times. 


FIGURE  39. — A thirty  minute  parking  time  limit  would 
abolish  all  day  parking  on  Main  Street.  This  would 
quadruple  the  number  of  cars  able  to  park  near  the  stores. 


ment  with  a base  of  six  inches  or  even  less  in 
thickness,  is  adequate  for  all  ordinary  traffic 
in  residential  sections.  For  heavy  trucks,  a 
base  eight,  ten  or  twelve  inches  thick  is  re- 
quired. There  is  only  one  alternative  to  in- 
creasing the  thickness  of  the  base,  and  that 
is  to  reinforce  the  concrete  used  in  its  con- 
struction. There  are  limits  beyond  which 
this  method,  however,  cannot  be  exercised  to 
afford  additional  strength,  limits  beyond 
which  increased  strength  can  only  be  ol)tained 
through  increased  thickness.  Some  towns 
are  pursuing  both  methods,  they  are  not  only 
increasing  the  thickness  of  the  pavement  but 
also  reinforcing  the  concrete  used  in  its  con- 
struction. But  whether  the  pavement  is 
strengthened  in  one  way  or  another,  it  costs 
more  to  the  taxpayer  and  the  pul)lic,  imposing 
a burden  from  which  both  might  be  relieved 
through  the  adoption  of  a farsighted  policy 
of  street  planning. 


The  quality  of  pavement  is  only  one  side 
of  the  picture.  The  quantity  of  pavement 
required  in  a city  must  also  be  considered. 
The  ordinary  quiet  residential  street  requires 
a roadway  wide  enough  for  only  two  vehicles 
to  pass  one  another  freely.  Today  many 
residential  streets  have  a I'oadway  width  from 
25  to  50  per  cent,  wider  than  that  required. 
In  other  words,  there  are  miles  and  miles  of 
streets  in  Paterson  which  could  be  paved  for 
from  GO  to  80  per  cent,  of  the  cost  of  paving 
them  to  their  present  width.  On  such  streets 
even  if  a pavement  of  the  same  character 
were  laid,  the  cost  could  be  cut  from  20  to  40 
per  cent.  But  as  we  have  seen,  a much 
lighter  pavement  can  be  laid  if  heavy  traffic 
is  excluded  fi-om  a street  than  if  it  is  allowed. 
Taking  this  matter  into  consideration,  the 
cost  of  paving  i-esidential  streets  can  in  many 
instances  be  reduced  to  less  than  one-half  of 
the  pi'esent  cost. 


40 


FIGURE  40. — West  Side  Park  and  vicinity.  This  and  the  three  succeeding  pictures  were  taken  from  the  flag- 
staff on  Garret  Rock.  There  are  still  large  areas  of  vacant  land  to  be  developed  in  Paterson.  Half  of  the  city’s 
area  is  still  unbuilt  upon. 


Cross  Sections  of  Residential  Streets. 

Proposed  cross  sections  of  typical  resident' 
ial  and  business  streets  are  shown  in  Fig.  44. 

The  width  of  roadway  in  residential  streets 
should  be  made  the  minimum  consistent  with 
satisfactory  service  to  avoid  unnecessary  ex- 
pense. Where  only  the  normal  residential 
traffic  has  to  be  provided  for,  a roadway 
width  of  24  feet  is  ample.  This  roadway 
width  is  proposed  for  the  streets  50  and  60 
feet  wide.  This  width  will  accommodate  a 
parked  vehicle  at  either  curb  and  a rapidly 
moving  vehicle  in  the  center  or  a parked 
vehicle  at  one  curb  and  two  vehicles  passing 
in  the  same  or  in  opposite  directions. 

Streets  70  and  80  feet  wide,  on  account  of 
their  width,  are  presumed  to  have  more  traf- 
fic than  narrower  residential  streets.  Even 
if  they  do  not  carry  any  through  traffic,  they 
seiwe  as  outlets  for  the  traffic  on  the  nai- 
rower  residence  streets.  Their  roadway 
width  should,  therefore,  not  be  less  than  32 
feet.  This  width  will  accommodate  a vehicle 


parked  on  either  side  and  a moving  vehicle 
in  each  direction,  or  where  vehicles  are  not 
parked,  two  lines  of  moving  vehicles  in  each 
direction. 

The  setback  of  buildings  or  the  depth  of 
front  yards  is  governed  by  the  zoning  ordin- 
ance and  varies  according  to  the  zone  in  which 
the  street  is  situated.  In  apartment  house, 
business  and  industrial  zones,  no  setbacks  are 
required  by  the  ordinance. 

Good  street  trees  add  to  the  attractiveness 
of  the  community  quite  as  much  as  good 
buildings.  Trees  should  be  as  near  the  road- 
way as  practicable.  The  best  appearance  of 
the  street  as  well  as  the  shade  afforded  by 
the  trees  make  this  desirable.  Trees  next 
to  the  curb  shield  the  walk  and  adjacent  prop- 
erty from  the  dust  of  the  street.  They  also 
enable  the  walk  to  be  located  farther  from  the 
roadway  and  nearer  the  residences.  This 
location  makes  the  pleasantest  walk  and  is 
most  satisfactory  to  the  pedestrian.  Owners 
generally  prefer  to  have  the  trees  located  at 
the  curb  for  then  they  cannot  cause  injury 


FIGURE  41. — The  Haledon  Section  of  Paterson.  The  reservoir  is  in  the  foreground  and  the  Passaic  River 
Immediately  back  of  it.  The  Falls  are  in  the  upper  right.  The  Fallsway  Memorial  would  run  from  West  Side  Park, 
which  is  shown  in  the  upper  left,  parallel  to  the  River  past  the  Falls,  and  thence  to  the  downtown  section  of 
the  city. 


to  the  adjacent  lawns,  nor  grow  objectionalilj^ 
close  to  dwellings.  Street  trees  should  be 
given  sufficient  room  and  soil  in  which  to 
grow.  They  should,  therefore,  not  even  on 
the  narrowest  streets,  be  neai’er  than  three 
feet  to  the  curb  line. 

The  sidewalk  pavement  is  given  a width  of 
five  feet  for  all  streets  except  those  80  feet 
wide,  where  a width  of  six  feet  is  planned. 

Cross  Sections  of  Business  Streets. 

Business  streets  have  an  entirely  different 
function  from  residential  streets  and  neces- 
sarily require  different  cross  sections.  Bus- 
iness depends  on  traffic  — the  greater  the 
traffic,  the  more  valuable  is  the  street  for 
business  purposes.  A business  street  should 
be  designed,  therefore,  to  take  care  of  trafl'ic 
up  to  the  full  limit  of  its  width.  Any  park- 
ing, trees,  etc.,  detract  from  its  serviceability 
to  business  by  interposing  obstacles  to  trade. 
Storekeepers  desire  to  get  as  near  the  travel- 
ling public  as  possible. 


The  problem  with  predetermined  street 
widths  is  how  to  fix  the  relative  proportion 
of  space  to  be  devoted  to  vehicular  traffic  and 
to  pedesti'ians. 

An  entirely  satisfactory  business  street, 
considered  apart  from  its  use  as  a thorough- 
fare, should  admit  of  vehicles  parking  on  both 
sides  so  that  shoppers  arriving  in  automo- 
biles can  visit  stores  with  the  least  effort. 

A street  50  feet  wide  with  a roadway  width 
of  32  feet  will  permit  parked  vehicles  on 
either  side  with  sufficient  room  in  the  center 
for  a vehicle  moving  in  each  direction.  This 
is  considei’ed  the  minimum  width  of  roadway 
for  a business  street.  With  the  present 
standard  roadway  width  of  30  feet  for  a 50- 
foot  street,  when  vehicles  are  parked  on 
either  side,  there  is  not  sulficinet  room  for 
two  moving  vehicles  in  the  center.  The 
small  inci'ease  in  width  proposed  which  per- 
mits two  moving  vehicles  between  the  stand- 
ing ones,  practically  doubles  the  capacity  ol' 
the  roadway.  Pedestrian  traffic  is  more  flex- 
ible than  vehicular  traffic  and  can  accommo- 


42 


FIGURE  42. — Downtown  Paterson.  Paterson  grew  up  around  the  Falls.  The  mills  in  the  left  are  situated 
along  the  raceways.  The  residential  area  between  these  mills  and  the  business  section  in  the  upper  right  is  the 
most  densely  populated  in  the  city. 


date  itself  in  a measure  to  the  width  allowed. 
A sidewalk  width  of  9 feet  is  contemplated  on 
50-foot  streets. 

For  a business  street,  60  feet  wide,  a road- 
way width  of  40  feet  instead  of  the  present 
standard  of  36  feet  is  suggested.  This  road- 
way width  will  provide  for  a parked  vehicle 
at  either  curb  and  three  lines  of  moving  vehi- 
cles. The  sidewalk  width  proposed  is  10 
feet. 

A business  street  70  feet  in  width  would 
have  a roadway  width  of  50  feet.  With  a 
double  track  trolley  in  the  center  and  a stand- 
ing vehicle  at  either  curb,  there  would  still 
})e  sufficient  room  left  on  either  side  of  the 
the  trolley  cars  for  a moving  vehicle.  Where 
there  are  no  trolley  tracks,  four  lines  of  mov- 
ing vehicles  can  be  accommodated  between 
cars  parked  at  either  curb.  Sidewalks  10 
feet  in  width  would  be  provided  to  accommo- 
date pedesti’ian  traffic. 

An  80-foot  wide  business  street  would  have 
a I'oadway  width  of  56  feet  instead  of  48  feet, 
the  present  standard.  Genei’ous  width  is 
given  for  one  line  of  moving  vehicles  on  either 


side  of  a double  trolley  with  parked  vehicle 
at  either  curb,  or  two  lines  of  moving  vehicles 
on  either  side  of  the  trolley  where  there  is  no 
parking.  Sidewalks  of  12  feet  in  width 
would  take  care  of  pedestrian  traffic. 

The  sidewalk  width  provided  may  in  ex- 
ceptional cases  prove  inadequate  for  pedes- 
trians. Then  the  walks  must  be  widened  at 
the  expense  of  either  private  property  or  the 
capacity  of  the  roadway. 

These  cross  sections,  it  should  be  said,  do 
not  represent  ideal  conditions.  They  are 
designed  on  the  basis  of  street  widths  already 
fixed  with  a view  to  obtaining  the  maximum 
I'oom  for  vehicular  traffic. 

Street  Intersections  and  Curb  Corners. 

The  capacity  of  its  street  intersections 
limits  the  amount  of  vehicular  traffic  a street 
can  carry.  Traffic  at  the  intersections  is 
obviously  greater  than  at  other  points  on  the 
street — the  number  of  vehicles  passing 
through  the  intersections  is  the  sum  of  those 
arriving  from  all  directions  and  is  generally 
much  greater  than  the  numl)er  passing 


FIGURE  43.  Downtown  Paterson.  Paterson  is  peculiarly  blest  among  American  cities  in  not  having  any 
high  skyscrapers.  The  zoning  law,  moreover,  limits  the  heighth  of  buildings  to  one  and  one-half  times  the  width 
of  the  street  with  a maximum  of  125  feet  in  the  downtown  section. 


through  the  block.  In  the  case  of  a crossing 
of  streets  having  equal  traffic  the  number  of 
vehicles  passing  through  the  intersection  is 
twice  that  passing  over  any  other  portion  of 
the  streets.  Cross  traffic  and  turns  fi’om 
one  street  to  another  both  require  reduced 
speed  or  a stop  and  prolong  the  time  that 
vehicles  are  in  the  intersection.  This  re- 
duces the  number  of  vehicles  than  can  pass 
through  an  intersection.  For  these  reasons, 
the  capacity  of  a street  crossing  others  at 
frequent  intervals  is  much  less,  often  a mere 
fraction  of  a highway  with  few  crossings. 

It  is  extremely  important  to  utilize  all  pos- 
sible means  of  passing  traffic  at  busy  inter- 
sections. The  addition  of  vehicular  space  at 
and  near  such  intersections  is  one  of  the 
means  to  effect  improvements.  In  order  to 
accommodate  as  many  vehicles  as  possible 
abreast,  the  curb  should  be  set  back  as  far  as 
pedestrian  traffic  will  permit. 

Another  effective  means  of  improving 
street  intersections  where  the  traffic  into  or 
out  of  cross  streets  is  heavy,  is  by  turning 
the  curb  at  the  corner  with  a larger  radius. 


Many  curb  corners  designed  in  the  days  of 
horse-drawn  vehicles  are  rounded  very  little 
and  an  auto  in  tui'ning  the  coi'ner  has  to 
occupy  a considearble  part  of  both  streets. 
Often  the  pole  or  fixture  of  some  public  ser- 
vice company  or  municipal  department  is 
located  at  the  corner.  These  sharp  corners 
are  in  a measure  a safety  device  for  pedes- 
trians against  reckless  autoists,  for  the  lat- 
ter have  to  slow  down,  and  cannot  approach 
persons  crossing  the  street  from  behind. 
Traffic  is,  however,  greatly  hindered  by  such 
obstructions. 

In  New  York,  right  angle  curb  corners 
were  foi-merly  turned  with  a radius  of  six 
feet  in  most  cases.  Automobile  traffic  was  so 
impeded  at  these  intersections  that  the  curb 
corners  have  since  been  reconstructed  to  a 
raduis  of  12  feet  in  large  sections  of  the  city 
at  considerable  expense.  So  far  as  the  auto- 
mobile is  concerned,  the  curb  should  be  turned 
with  a turning  radius  of  not  less  than  that  of 
the  motor  car.  This  varies  from  20  to  45 
feet.  The  average  is  about  30  feet.  To 
employ  such  a large  curb  radius  would  require 


44 


FIGURE  44. 


the  taking'  of  considerable  pi’operty  at  the 
sti'eet  corner  and  would  also  add  an  element 
of  danger  to  the  crossing  pedestrian.  Such 
a corner  would  probably  not  be  advisable  in 
built-up  sections  except  where  the  turns  in  a 
particular  dii'ection  were  unusually  numerous. 

Generally,  the  curb  should  be  turned  in  the 
case  of  right  angle  crossings  with  a radius 
of  the  least  sidewalk  width  at  the  intersec- 
tion. This  gives  the  lai'gest  curb  radius  com- 
patible with  retaining  that  sidewalk  Avidth 
around  the  comer  which  does  not  encroach 
upon  private  property.  It  greatly  facilitates 
the  turning  of  the  corner  by  automobiles  and 
is  not  so  great  as  to  be  unsafe  to  pedestrians. 

Some  of  the  street  intersections  in  Pater- 
son where  a large  amount  of  traffic  turns 
from  one  street  to  the  other  have  the  curb 
corners  re-arranged  substantially  as  above 
suggested.  The  Board  of  Public  Works  has 
adopted  a far-sighted  policy  in  this  regard  in 
the  setting  back  of  curb  corners  as  and  when 
the  street  is  improved  and  thus  avoiding  all 
unnecessary  expense.  It  is,  therefore,  only 
a question  of  time  until  the  present  bad  con- 
ditions at  the  curb  corners  will  be  rectified. 

The  speed  at  which  machines  can  turn 
corners  depends  upon  several  factors.  The 
width  of  the  intersecting  streets ; whether  or 
not  a corner  is  rounded  off  and  the  extent  to 
which  it  is  rounded  off ; whether  the  tinm  is 
to  the  right  or  to  the  left;  and  the  distance 
the  machine  is  travelling  from  the  curb. 

A car  running  near  the  curb  in  making  a 
right  angle  turn  into  an  intersecting  street, 
will  generally  have  to  leave  the  curb  and 
travel  nearer  the  center  of  the  roadway  on 
entering  the  cross  street  as  the  tui-ning  radius 
of  the  car  is  usually  considerably  greater 
than  that  of  the  curb.  It  conseciuently  fol- 
lows that  how  closely  a car  can  keep  to  the 
curb  and  avoid  interference  with  other  lines 
of  traffic  depends  on  its  turning  radius.  Cars 
with  a short  turning  radius  obviously  can 
keep  nearer  the  curb  and  avoid  interference 
with  other  traffic  much  better  than  those 
with  a larger  turning  radius.  The  speed  of 


turning  under  these  conditions,  presuming  a 
clear  roadway,  depends  on  the  machine  and 
not  on  the  width  of  I'oadway.  Increased 
street  widths,  however,  permit  increased 
speed  of  cars  in  making  right-hand  turns, 
when  they  travel  near  the  center  of  the  road- 
way and  in  the  case  of  several  ti’affic  units 
abreast,  a car  making  a right-hand  turn  and 
moving  nearest  the  center  line  of  the  street 
would  turn  in  the  largest  circle  and  safely 
move  the  fastest.  It  has  a longer  path  to 
travel,  however,  and  the  increase  in  velocity 
will  not  entirely  compensate  for  the  greater 
length  of  the  outside  path. 

Where  the  corners  are  cut  off,  the  speed, 
due  to  the  increased  turning  radius,  may  be 
considerably  increased  without  any  decrease 
in  relative  safety.  As  one  would  naturally 
expect,  cutting  off  the  corners  is  compara- 
tively of  much  greater  importance  to  inter- 
secting streets  of  a narrow  width  than  to 
streets  of  great  width. 

Many  machines,  especially  the  bigger  ones 
with  large  turning  radius,  experience  great 
difficulty  in  making  right-hand  turns  without 
encroaching  upon  the  left  hand  side  of  the 
roadway.  Particularly  on  the  narrower 
streets  it  is  no  uncommon  occurrence  foi‘  ma- 
chines to  swing  almost  over  to  the  left  hand 
side  before  turning  to  the  right.  Sometimes 
this  swing  to  the  left  is  carried  out  within  the 
intersection  itself  in  a manner  to  block  the 
intersection  from  all  directions.  Right  hand 
turns  executed  in  this  manner  ai'e  more  em- 
barrassing  to  traffic  than  those  to  the  left. 
The  importance  of  not  only  wide  streets  but 
rounded  corners  to  remedy  this  situation  is 
apparent. 

In  the  case  of  a left  hand  turn  a car  near 
the  curb  has  the  greatest  tuiTiing  radius  and 
can  consequently  move  with  the  gi’eatest 
speed  but  the  speed  will  not  fully  compensate 
for  the  length  of  its  path.  When  a car  mak- 
ing such  a turn  has  to  go  around  a central 
point,  tui'ning  radii  and  safe  speeds  ai'e  the 
same  as  with  I'ight  angle  turns  around  a 
sharp  corner,  curb  lines  and  center  lines  being 


46 


FIGURE  45.— The  Falls  In  Winter.  The  preservation  of  the  Falls  for  the  public  would  constitute  the  noblest 
memorial  Paterson  could  provide  for  her  hero  dead  who  fell  in  the  World  War. 


transposed.  The  tinning  radius  and  speed 
increase  with  the  width  of  the  street  when 
the  car  turns  close  to  the  curb. 

Left  hand  turns  where  a centi’al  point  has 
to  be  rounded  will  consequently  be  found  to 
I)e  shorter  and  more  difficult  to  negotiate 
than  right  hand  turns.  Where  there  are 
many  left  hand  turns,  the  movement  of  traf- 
fic will  be  greatly  facilitated  by  requiring  it 
to  I’ound  markers  immediately  before  and 
after  the  intersection  is  reached  instead  of  at 
the  center.  This  will  permit  the  negotiation 
of  the  turn  with  a considerable  greater  radius 
and  speed  than  would  otherwise  be  possible. 
Left  hand  turns  then  have  the  advantage  in 
these  respects.  Light  hand  turns  can  be 
made,  however,  liy  encroaching  on  the  left 
hand  side  of  the  street  in  a circle  equally 


large. 

Streets  in  closely  built  sections  can  never 
be  made  safe  for  high  speeds  for  two  reasons : 

(1)  machines  cannot  turn  shaiq)  corners 
while  travelling  fast  without  danger  of  skid- 
ding or  of  running  down  pedestrians;  and 

(2)  corners  cut  off  by  a sufficient  amount  to 
enable  drivers  of  fast  machines  to  see  traffic 
on  intersecting  streets  and  stop  in  time  to 
avoid  colliding  with  the  cross  traffic  or  to 
make  a safe  turn  at  high  speed  would  require 
in  lousiness  sections,  too  much  valuable  prop- 
erty, and  would  make  the  crossing  less  satis- 
factory for  pedestrians. 

Cutting  off  the  street  corners,  instead  of 
making  the  streets  safe  for  fast  vehicles,  only 
renders  them  less  dangerous  for  slow  ones. 


47 


(^IIAl’TKK  IV. 


NEKDKl)  IMl’KOVEMKNT  IN  THE  (ITY’S  STREET  SYSTEM. 


The  business  men  of  Paterson  should  very 
naturally  desire  to  extend  the  commercial 
hinterland  tributary  to  the  city  as  far  as  pos- 
sible. Only  the  blindest  folly  on  the  part 
of  the  city  itself  can  rob  it  of  supremacy  to 
the  west  and  north.  Thoug'h  growing  rapid- 
ly, this  is  all  virgin  territory.  As  a com- 
petitor for  the  trade  of  this  territory,  Pater- 
son stands  alone — there  are  no  rivals.  The 
only  way  in  which  Paterson  can  possibly  lose 
her  natural  ascendency  in  this  large  area  is 
by  voluntary  forfeiting  it,  that  is  by  so  fail- 
ing to  serve  it  that  new  business  districts 
must  be  established  to  care  for  the  trade. 

To  the  east  and  south,  however,  the  situa- 
tion is  quite  different.  Here  strong  and 
energetic  competitors  already  exist,  and  in 
some  respects  they  possess  trade  advantages 
that  Paterson  lacks.  The  natural  movement 
of  traffic  in  this  vicinity  is  from  west  to  east 
and  from  north  to  south,  not  the  I'everse. 
The  main  thoroughfares  throughout  the 
metropolitan  area  have  been  designed  to 
facilitate  movement  not  toward  any  paific- 
ular  suburban  unit,  but  toward  New  York. 
That  is  one  of  the  reasons  why  the  suburbs 
are  so  small.  Their  existence  has  revolved 
about  New  York — they  have  never  syste- 
matically attempted  to  develop  an  identity 
of  their  own. 

The  future  city  af  Paterson  should  cer- 
tainly extend  to  the  Saddle  River  on  the  east 
and  to  the  Great  Notch  on  the  southwest. 
But  whether  this  territory  is  or  is  not  incoi- 
porated  as  an  integral  part  of  the  city,  every 
effort  should  be  exerted  to  establish  superioi’ 
means  of  communication  with  this  large  area 
so  that  if  it  is  not  in  the  city,  it  shall,  at  least, 
be  suburban  to  the  city. 

To-day,  this  territory  consists  of  vacant 
stretches  of  farm  lands.  For  the  most  part, 
it  is  unsubdivided.  With  few  exceptions,  the 
future  street  system  of  the  area  can  as  easily 


be  planned  as  an  harmonious  part  of  the 
street  plan  of  Paterson  as  of  such  neighbor- 
ing communities  as  Hackensack,  Passaic  or 
Montclair.  The  co-operation  of  the  neigh- 
boring communities,  of  course,  must  be  se- 
cured in  order  that  their  street  plans  will 
harmonize  with  ours.  But  first  of  all,  we 
must  plan  within  our  own  limits  the  streets 
that  will  be  required  to  serve  this  large  area. 

If  Main  Street  is  to  remain  the  only 
through  down-town  street  in  the  city,  then 
the  business  growth  of  Paterson  will  have 
reached  its  maximum  development  when  im- 
proved methods  of  regulating  traffic  have 
had  their  possibilities  exhausted  and  refuse 
to  pass  an  increased  number  of  vehicles. 

Much  can  be  accomplished  through  the 
installation  of  more  scientific  methods  of  traf- 
fic control,  especially  through  re-routing  the 
jitneys  and  trolleys,  the  elimination  of  super- 
fluous car  stops,  the  enactment  of  effective 
parking  ordinances,  etc.,  but  the  relief  afford- 
ed by  all  of  these  palliative  measures  will  do 
little  more  than  make  present  conditions 
tolerable.  Even  if  they  were  to  care  for  the 
normal  increased  growth  in  traffic  during  the 
next  foui‘  or  five  years,  at  the  end  of  that 
period,  the  traffic  situation  would  be  relative- 
ly the  same  as  now,  and  additional  new  streets 
would  have  to  be  provided  for  further  in 
creased  traffic. 

Improved  traffic  regulations,  therefore,  will 
not  permanently  take  the  place  of  increased 
street  facilities,  nor  can  their  pi'ovision  be 
indefinitely  postponed.  If  the  opening  or 
widening  of  necessary  streets  is  delayed  until 
traffic  catches  up  with  the  present  facilities, 
then  street  improvements  now  financially 
possible  will  have  become,  through  the  erec- 
tion of  expensive  buildings,  economically  im- 
possible. 

The  program  of  street  widenings  and  ex- 
tensions recommended  in  this  report  include: 


48 


streets  prevail  in  the  business  and  industrial  sections 
where  they  should  be  the  widest. 

Bridge  Street  widening  to  80  feet,  Arch 
Street  Bridge  to  Broadway. 

Bridge  Street  opening  80  feet,  Broadway 
to  Ward  Street. 

Prince  Street  widening  to  80  feet.  Ward 
Street  to  Slater  Street. 

Spring  Street  widening  to  80  feet.  Slater 
Street  to  Peach  Street. 

Getty  Avenue  opening  80  feet.  Straight 
Street  to  Peach  Street. 

Water  Street  widening  to  100  feet.  Arch 
Street  Bridge  to  Haledon  Avenue. 

Water  Street  opening  100  feet,  Haledon 
Avenue  to  city  line. 

Marshall  Street  opening  60  feet,  Oliver 
Street  to  Prospect  Street. 

Prospect  Street  widening  to  60  feet.  Van 
llouten  Street  to  River  Street. 

Prospect  Street  opening,  80  feet.  River 
Street  to  Hamburgh  Avenue. 

Broadway  widening  to  60  feet,  Piospect 
Street  to  Mulberry  Street. 

Pallsway  Memorial:  Opening  of  new 
street  past  Falls,  100  feet.  River  Street  and 
Pi'ospect  Street  to  West  Side  Park. 

Straight  Street  widening  to  80  feet.  Main 
Street  to  Fulton  Street. 


FIGURE  47. — Streets  over  70  feet  wide.  There  is  no 
system  of  wide  streets  in  Paterson.  Such  wide  streets 
as  exist  must  be  connected  to  be  fuily  utilized. 


Barclay  Street  widening  to  80  feet.  Hazel 
Street  to  Main  Street. 

Market  Street  widening  to  70  feet,  Erie 
Railroad  to  East  18th  Street. 

Lakeview  Avenue  extension  60  feet.  Mar- 
ket Street  to  21st  Avenue. 

Boulevard  widening  and  relocation,  irreg- 
ular width.  Crooks  Avenue  to  5th  Avenue. 

Morris  and  Essex  Boulevard  opening  66 
feet,  Morris  and  Essex  Canal. 

Newark  Avenue  widening  and  cut-olf,  80 
feet.  Hazel  Street  to  Main  Street. 

River  Street  widening  to  60  feet.  Main  Line 
to  Sparrow  Street. 

First  Avenue  cut-offs.  River  Street  and 
Madison  Avenue  to  River  Street  Bridge, 
Boulevard  to  Wagaraw  Bridge. 

York  Avenue  extension  60  feet,  Warren 
Street  to  Lyon  Street. 

York  Avenue  widening  to  60  feet,  Godwin 
Street  to  Warren  Street. 

Madison  Avenue  opening  80  feet,  Susque- 
hanna Railroad  to  14th  Avenue. 

16th  Avenue,  opening  70  feet,  Main  Line 
Erie  Railroad  to  Market  Street;  50  feet, 
East  18th  Street  to  Madison  Avenue. 


-19 


IMoiion  Street,  openiiiji'  70  feet,  Strai}2:lit 
Street  to  Kailroad  Avenue;  50  feet,  Mai’ket 
Street  to  Sununer  Street. 

lOast  Bth  Street,  openinji’  50  feet,  River 
Street  to  Warren  Sti'eet.  Cnt-otf  Branch 
Street. 

\’an  llonten  Street  openiii}*'  60  feet,  East 
18tli  Street  to  Madison  Avenue. 

Iloxsey  Street,  widening-  80  feet.  Grand 
Street  to  McBride  Avenue. 

28rd  Avenue  cut-off  to  Madison  Avenue. 

Alabama  Avenue  opening  70  feet.  Lake- 
view  Avenue  to  Mai-ket  Street. 

Summer  Street  opening  80  feet,  under 
proposed  railroad  viaduct  from  Keen  Street 
to  River  Street. 

Clark  Street  cut-off  southwest  comer  Mar- 
ket and  Clark  Street. 


BRIDGE  STREET. 

If  Paterson  is  ever  to  have  more  than  one 
continuous  through  street  bisecting  the  heart 
of  the  business  district  from  north  to  south, 
that  street  must  be  an  extension  and  widen- 
ing of  Bridge  Street.  No  other  street  opens 
up  such  great  possibilities ; no  other  street  is 
so  favorably  located.  Situated  approximate- 
ly half  way  between  Main  Street  and  Straight 
Street,  tapping  River  Street,  East  Main 
Street  and  Haledon  Avenue  on  the  north,  and 
running  directly  into  Getty  Avenue  and  Bar- 
clay Street  on  the  south,  it  will  afford  direct 
access  to  the  shopping  district  from  all  the 
suburban  communities  lying  on  both  sides 
of  the  city — Ridgewood,  Glen  Rock,  Haw- 
thorne, Prospect  Park,  Haledon  and  Clifton. 

To  make  Bridge  Street  what  it  really 
should  be,  it  is  necessary  to  extend  it  from 
its  present  terminus  at  Broadway  to  a point 
where  it  would  enter  Prince  Street  at  Ward 
Street.  Prince  Street  joins  Ward  Street 
south  of  Slater  Street  so  that  beyond  this 
point  the  extension  would  utilize  Spring 
Street.  To  connect  Spring  Street  with  Getty 
Avenue,  a new  street  would  have  to  be  cut 


FIGURE  48. — Bridge  Street  extension  and  widening. 
Clark  Street  cutoff.  Jackson  Street  extension. 


50 


through  between  Peach  and  Straight  Streets. 
A uniform  width  of  80  feet  is  contemplated 
for  the  entire  street,  for  the  old  portion  as 
well  as  the  new,  all  the  way  from  Getty  Ave- 
nue to  the  Arch  Street  Bridge  over  the  Pas- 
saic River.  On  the  west  side  of  the  river, 
north  of  Arch  Street  Bridge,  the  improve- 
ment would  be  continued  by  taking  all  the 
land  between  Water  Street  and  the  River  as 
far  as  East  Main  Street.  Beyond  East  Main 
Street  to  the  city  line,  a new  street  skirting 
the  bank  of  the  river  with  a width  of  one 
hundred  feet  would  be  laid  out  to  afford 
access  to  the  rapidly  growing  communities 
on  the  north. 

WATER  STREET. 

This  street  is  designed  to  link  up  the  sev- 
eral thoroughfares  entering  Paterson  from 
the  north  and  northwest,  as  well  as  the 
bridges  in  this  section  so  that  any  of  the 
bridge  crossings  may  be  used  with  equal  facil- 
ity. Traffic  can  then  distribute  itself  over 
the  bridges  and  into  the  streets  as  found  most 
convenient. 

The  street  will  also  provide  a new  thor- 
oughfare of  ample  width  by  which  traffic 
over  Arch  Street  Bridge  and  others  may  pro- 
ceed to  the  north  over  an  ample  thoroughfare 
instead  of  through  the  narrow  streets  now 
used.  It  will  also  give  the  City  of  Paterson 
control  over  a long  section  of  its  river  front 
which  is  poorly  developed  at  the  present  time. 

This  proposed  improvement  consists  of 
widening  Water  Street  on  the  east  side  be- 
tween Arch  Street  and  East  Main  Street  to 
a width  of  100  feet,  while  parking  any  re- 
maining areas  between  the  street  and  the 
river.  The  street  would  continue  along  the 
river  bank  at  the  width  of  100  feet  entering 
East  Main  Street  just  outside  the  limits  of 
the  city  in  Prospect  Park  and  should  continue 
by  widening  that  thoroughfare  from  its  pres- 
ent width  of  50  feet  to  100  feet. 

With  the  exception  of  a factoiy  build- 
ing between  East  Main  Street  and  Straight 


Street,  the  proposed  widening  and  extension 
traverses  a section  which  is  poorly  developed, 
mostly  with  two  story  frame  houses  many  of 
them  quite  old.  East  of  Bergen  Street,  the 
proposed  street  traverses  property  mostly 
vacant. 

The  Arch  Street  bridge.  Straight  Street 
bridge,  Hillman  Street  bridge  and  Sixth  Ave- 
nue bridge  enter  directly  into  this  proposed 
improvement,  the  latter  at  the  line  between 
the  Boroughs  of  Prospect  Park  and  Haw- 
thorne. 


MARSHALL  STREET. 

Maivshall  Street  parallelinj?  Main  Street  for 
a considerable  distance,  unencunibei’ed  witli 
trolleys  and  bein«-  the  principal  street  from 
the  downtown  section  to  Montclair,  Bloom- 
field, the  Oranges  and  Newark,  is  seriously 
handicapped  by  not  having  a better  outlet  to 
the  north.  As  it  comes  to  an  abrupt  stop 
at  Oliver  Street,  all  the  traffic  using  it  is 
obliged  to  occupy  Main  Street  from  that 
point  in  order  to  enter  the  business  district. 
This  embarrasses  a large  amount  of  through 
traffic  by  obliging  it  to  use  Main  Street 
through  its  most  congested  section.  If 
Marshall  Street  were  extended  from  Oliver 
Street  to  Market  so  that  it  would  feed  into 
Prospect  Street,  the  effect  would  be  to  speed 
up  the  movement  of  vehicles  throughout  the 
entire  business  district.  The  business  dis- 
trict could  be  served  with  a far  gi’eater  num- 
ber of  machines  entering  from  both  north 
and  south;  congestion  on  Main  Street  would 
be  relieved;  and  the  speed  of  traffic  through 
the  city  would  be  tremendously  accelerated. 

Marshall  Street,  extended  thus  and  joined 
through  Prospect  Street  with  the  proposed 
Fallsway  Memorial,  the  Water  Street  im- 
provement, and  Hamburgh  Avenue  would 
immediately  become  a thoroughfare  of  in- 
creased importance.  Today  the  factories  are 
encroaching  more  and  more  toward  the  east, 
the  distance  between  them  and  Main  Street 
is  steadily  lessing ; indeed,  factories  are 
even  now  operating  on  Main  Street  itself. 
If  the  factory  movement  toward  the  east  is 
not  halted,  the  supremacy  of  Main  Street  as 
the  chief  shopping  street  of  the  city  will  be 
seriously  threatened.  To  keep  Main  Street 
the  street  it  is,  means  that  the  factories  must 
be  kept  at  their  present  distance.  They  can- 
not be  allowed  to  come  any  nearer;  if  any- 
thing, they  should  be  pushed  farther  back. 

The  extension  of  Marshall  Street  would 
tend  to  increase  the  land  values  on  Prospect 
Street.  The  through  traffic  that  would  go 
over  this  street  from  Totowa,  Little  Falls, 
Haledon  and  Pomp  ton  to  Newark,  the 


Oranges,  Montclaii’,  Bloomlield  and  Clirton, 
when  added  to  its  present  local  traffic,  would 
make  it  one  of  the  most  traveled  streets  in 


FIGURE  50. — Marshall  Street  extension.  Prospect 
Street  widening  and  extension  to  Hamburgh  Avenue  and 
Fallsway  Memorial. 


52 


FIGURE  51. — Fallsway  Memorial  Park  and  Parkway. 
Broadway  cutoff. 

the  city.  This  would  of  course,  attract 
shoppers  and  serve  to  galvanize  the  whole 
district  now  in  a transitional  stage  with  new 
life.  In  time  it  would  not  be  unreasonable 
to  expect  that  this  street  improvement  would 
roll  back  the  factory  development  away  from 
Main  Street,  till  up  the  gap  between  Prospect 
and  Main  Streets  with  stores  and  help  per- 
manently to  maintain  Main  Street  in  its  pres- 
ent position  as  the  chief  shopping  center  of 
the  city. 


THE  FALLSWAY  MEMORIAL. 

The  Fallsway  Memorial  would  do  more  than 
provide  access  to  the  Falls,  though  this  would 
be  a sufficiently  worthy  achievement  in  it- 
self— it  would  also  shorten  the  distance  be- 
tween the  west  and  east  sections  of  the  city, 
thus  affording  a new  street  of  easy  grades 
from  the  center  of  town  to  West  Side  Park. 
It  would  also  relieve  the  congestion  of  traffic 
on  Main  Street,  pei'initting  through  vehicles 
entirely  to  avoid  Main  Street  and  consequent- 
ly increase  the  ability  of  that  street  to  care 
for  purely  local  traffic.  The  traffic  from 
Little  Falls,  Singac  and  Totowa,  now  using 
Union  Avenue  would  all  be  diverted  to  the 
Fallsway  Memorial.  This  would  relieve  both 
Hamburgh  Avenue  and  West  Street  of  their 
present  congestion.  By  opening  up  new 
routes  to  traffic — making  offset  streets  like 
Marshall  and  Prospect  through  streets  and 
encouraging  traffic  to  circulate  instead  of 
stagnating  in  a maize  of  streets  leading  ab- 
solutely nowhere;  by  providing  what  prac- 
tically amounts  to  a new  street  parallel  to 
Main  and  West  Streets,  thus  doubling  the 
thoroughfare  space  available  for  through 
traffic;  by  affording  such  streets  as  Broad- 
way, River  and  Water  a new  outlet  for  their 
traffic,  the  Fallsway  Memorial  with  its  con- 
nections is  the  one  big  outstanding  street 
improvement  that  will  do  more  than  any 
other  improvement,  not  even  excepting  the 
Bridge  Street  extension  and  widening,  to  re- 
lieve downtown  congestion. 

The  Fallsway  Memorial  and  its  connections 
including  the  three  new  bridges  over  the  Pas- 
saic River  may  be  viewed  in  various  ways; 
it  may  be  considered,  in  one  sense,  as  a con- 
tinuation of  Broadway,  thus  affording  one 
continuous  street  from  West  Side  Park  to 
East  Side  Park.  In  another  sense,  it  may 
be  looked  upon  as  a projection  of  River  Street 
across  the  Passaic  and  as  a means  of  provid- 
ing direct  access  from  Totowa  to  River- 
side. Then,  too,  it  may  be  regarded  as  an 
extension  of  Water  Street  past  the  Falls,  thus 


slioi'lc'niiio’  tlu'  routes  hetwoeu  I lawthoi'iir 
and  \A'est  Side  Park. 

The  Fallsway  Memorial  would  aH'ovd  an 
appi'oaeh  to  our  »'i‘oatest  uatural  asset — the 
Falls.  That  uothino-  has  ever  been  done  to 
preserve  and  make  available  to  the  public  the 
majesty  and  «Tandeur  of  this  beautiful  spot 
is  the  severest  indictment  that  can  possibly 
be  lodo'ed  against  our  past  lack  of  prudence 
and  foresight  in  city  planning.  This  remark- 
able cataract  with  its  interesting  chasm 
should  have  been  preserved  for  public  pur- 
poses a hundred  years  ago.  The  pi’eserva- 
tion  of  the  Falls  is  something  that  Patei’son 
has  always  wanted,  still  wants  and  will  want 
until  they  are  acquired. 

Had  the  reservation  of  the  Falls  for 
recreational  purposes  been  woi'ked  out  at  the 
time  the  city  was  founded  in  connection  with 
the  utilization  of  its  power  for  industrial 
purposes,  the  happiest  solution  to  both  prob- 
lems would,  of  course,  have  been  possible. 
But  even  today  it  is  not  too  late.  The  land 
still  vacant,  however,  is  being  rapidly  im- 
proved; if  the  Falls  are  ever  to  be  acquired 
for  public  purposes,  it  must  be  now  without 
delay  before  all  the  land  is  improved. 

These  are  some  of  the  practical  considei'- 
ations  which  make  the  Fallsway  Memorial  a 
paramount  necessity.  But  it  may  be  made 
something  moi-e  than  a mei'e  thoroughfare. 

As  yet  the  city  has  erected  no  memorial 
to  the  heroes  of  the  World  War.  Who  can 
deny  the  appropriateness  of  such  a memoi'ial, 
especially  when  it  is  coupled  with  the  preser- 
vation of  land  at  present  vacant  in  the  vicin- 
ity of  the  Falls  on  Monument  Hill  as  a public 
park?  No  other  place  with  the  exception  of 
Garret  fiock,  affords  such  a wonderful  ])an- 
orama  of  the  entire  city  and,  indeed,  of  the 
entire  surrounding  counti'y.  That  the  G.  A.  U. 
should  have  chosen  this  site  for  the  memoi-ial 
to  those  who  fell  in  the  Civil  War  ceififies  to 
its  availibility  as  a monument  site;  that  this 
monument  should  now  be  removed  to  East 
Side  Park  nearly  sixty  years  after  the  close 
of  the  Wai',  instead  of  reflecting  upon  the 


FIGURE  52. — Straight  Street  widening  and  extension. 
Barclay  Street  widening.  Newark  Avenue  widening  and 
cutoff. 


54 


FIGURE  53. — Market  Street  widening.  Raiiroad  Avenue  extension.  Crosby  Piace  and  Sixteenth  Avenue 
extension.  Morton  Street  extension. 


unique  location  of  this  rugged  promontory 
overlooking  the  Passaic  for  monument  pur- 
poses, is  only  another  proof,  if  any  were  de- 
sired, of  the  dreary  isolation  at  present  sur- 
rounding the  approach  to  the  Falls. 

Viewed  either  as  a thoroughfare  or  as  a 
memorial,  the  Fallsway  Memorial  is  an  indis- 
pensable part  of  any  satisfactory  program  of 
civic  development. 

STRAIGHT  STREET. 

Straight  Street  is  one  of  the  most  import- 
ant links  in  the  city’s  major  street  system. 
Being  the  only  continuous  street  running 
north  and  south  through  the  city  between 
Madison  Avenue  and  Main  Street  and  located 
immediately  to  one  side  of  the  business  dis- 
trict, it  will,  in  time,  serve  not  only  as  a cut- 
off between  Main  and  River  Streets  and, 
therefore,  as  a relief  to  the  downtown  streets, 
but  as  a main  highway  between  such  com- 
munities as  Montclair  and  Clifton  on  the 
south  and  Ridgewood,  Prospect  Park  and 
Hawthonie  on  the  north.  Yet  its  unique  po- 
sition in  the  city’s  street  system  has,  up  to 


date,  been  very  inadequately  appreciated,  so 
inadequately,  in  fact,  that  today  it  is  almost 
impossible  for  an  automobile  to  use  it — the 
pavement  is  so  bad.  To  realize  its  true  im- 
portance, Straight  Street  must  be  given  an 
increased  width — fifty  feet  is  entirely  too 
narrow  for  the  traffic  it  will  be  called  upon 
to  care  for  within  a few  years.  It  should  be 
widened  to  a width  of  at  least  eighty  feet. 
As  its  southern  extremity  it  should,  more- 
over, be  straightened  so  that  it  will  connect 
directly  with  Barclay  Street.  This  will  ob- 
viate the  necessity  of  making  an  awkward 
turn  on  Main  Street  and  thereby  increase  the 
capacity  of  both  Main  and  Straight  Streets. 

MARKET  STREET. 

Market  Street  is  one  of  the  oldest  as  well 
as  most  important  traffic  thoroughfares  of 
the  city.  It  leads  out  east  from  the  business 
center  past  the  principal  railroad  station. 
Some  of  the  most  important  public  and  com- 
mercial buildings  are  located  on  this  street. 
It  is  the  direct  thoroughfare  to  Hackensack 
and  Fort  Lee  and  via  Hackensack  to  Hoboken 


.);> 


and  Jorsoy  City.  To  the  west  of  the  biisinoss 
contor,  tlu'  siroot  onlors  Sinaico  Sti'cci 
wluM'e  it  connects  "witli  l\1cl>ride  Avenue  by 
which  Little  Falls  and  the  country  to  the  west 
is  reached. 

From  Spruce  Street  to  Mill  Street,  MaiLet 
Street  is  now  fifty  feet  wide;  from  Mill  Street 
to  Washing-ton  Street,  60  feet  wide,  where  it 
expands  into  90  feet  and  continues  at  that 
width  to  Ramapo  Avenue.  East  of  that 
street,  it  is  50  feet  wide  as  far  as  Madison 
Avenue.  From  Madison  Avenue,  east  to 
Mai’ket  Street  bridge,  where  it  enters  Bergen 
County,  the  street  has  a width  of  70  feet. 

There  is  considerable  traffic  congestion  in 
the  narrow  portion  of  Market  Street  east  of 
Ramapo  Avenue.  It  is  proposed  to  remedy 
this  condition  by  widening  the  street  on  its 
southerly  side  from  its  present  width  of  50 
to  70  feet.  The  widening  would  make  of 
Market  Street  a thoroughfare  not  less  than 
70  feet  wide  in  any  part  east  of  the  business 
center.  Traffic  would  then  move  to  and 
from  the  center  much  more  freely  than  at 
present. 

From  Ramapo  Avenue  to  Summer  Street, 
the  buildings  which  would  be  cut  are  gener- 
ally three-story  frame  and  brick  buildings 
of  considerable  age.  From  Summer  Sti-eet 
to  Pennington  Street  the  buildings  are  mostly 
two-story  frame  buildings  which  can  in  most 
cases  be  moved  back  on  the  lot.  From  Pen- 
nington Street  to  Madison  Avenue,  the  widen- 
ing would  not  occasion  any  building  damage. 

LAKEVIEW  AVENUE. 

Lakeview  Avenue,  120  feet  wide,  the  widest 
street  in  the  city,  is  an  excellent  connection 
from  Market  Street,  south  through  Clifton 
into  Passaic.  East  37th  Street  would  be  the 
pi-oper  continuation  of  the  street  north  into 
Vreeland  Avenue,  where  traffic  could  con 
tinue  through  East  33rd  Street,  and  the 
bridge  across  the  Passaic  to  Bellair  and  points 
to  the  north  and  east.  Unfortunately,  the 
Susquehanna  Railroad  is  in  the  way  and  the 
street  was  vacated  in  1914  for  a length  of 
325  feet  south  of  21st  Avenue.  Two  one- 


FIGURE  54. — Boulevard  relocation  and  widening 
Lakeview  Avenue  extension.  Twenty-third  Avenue 
extension.  First  Avenue  cutoffs. 


56 


story  and  one  two-story  buildings  of  little 
value  and  which  can  easily  be  moved,  have 
been  placed  on  this  area.  It  is  considered 
that  the  importance  of  the  direct  continua- 
tion of  this  avenue  to  the  north  of  Market 
Street  warrants  reclaiming  the  vacant  portion 
of  East  37th  Street,  and  provision  of  a cross- 
ing at  East  37th  Street  in  the  grade  crossing 
elimination  plans  of  the  Susquehanna  Rail- 
road. 

THE  BOULEVARD. 

This  avenue  is  already  laid  out  for  the  most 
part  at  a width  of  100  feet  along  the  west 
shore  of  the  Passaic  River,  but  the  several 
breaks  in  its  continuity  destroy  its  useful- 
ness, and  consequently  it  has  not  been  im- 
proved. 

The  street  is  strategically  located  for  de- 
touring the  heavy  pleasure  traffic  from  New 
York  City  and  points  south,  to  the  east  of  the 
congested  portions  of  the  city,  on  its  way  to 
Ridgewood,  Tuxedo  and  points  north. 

Besides  relieving  congestion  on  other  north 
and  south  streets  nearer  the  heart  of  the 
city,  it  will  furnish  a very  attractive  and 
scenic  way  which  it  is  anticipated  will  attract 
a considerable  pleasure  traffic  when  once  it 
is  improved.  Following  the  river,  it  will  be 
nearly  level,  and  objectionable  grades  which 
occur  on  other  routes  will  be  avoided.  It 
will  also  form  an  important  link  in  a belt 
traffic  way  round  the  city,  connecting  its 
main  thoroughfares. 

The  avenue  has  good  connections  to  the 
south  of  the  city  through  Dundee  Drive, 
Lexington  Avenue  and  Randolph  Avenue  to 
the  main  thoroughfares  on  the  south  and  via 
the  Wagaraw  Bridge  to  Ridgewood,  Tuxedo 
and  points  north  via  Maple  Avenue. 

It  is  not  believed  that  the  citizens  of  Pater- 
son will  long  tolerate  the  foul  condition  of  the 
river,  which  is  constantly  growing  worse  by 
the  diminution  of  the  dry  weather  flow,  and 
the  increased  discharge  of  waste  into  the 
stream.  The  proposed  improvement  pre- 


sumes that  the  river  will  eventually  be  re- 
claimed and  made  attractive. 

In  order  to  effect  this  improvement,  it  is 
proposed  to  widen  Weasel  Road  on  the  river 
side  from  its  present  width  of  70  feet  to  100 
feet,  and  park  the  areas  intervening  between 
it  and  the  river.  From  Market  Street  north 
to  East  Side  Park,  the  existing  avenue  100 
feet  wide  is  made  use  of,  and  the  areas  to  the 
east  bordering  on  the  River  are  also  to  be 
parked. 

Through  East  Side  Park,  there  is  at  pres- 
ent a dirt  roadway  near  the  river  bank.  This 
part  of  the  park  has  been  improved  very  littF 
owing,  no  doubt,  to  the  condition  of  the  river. 
A park  roadway  of  adequate  width  is  pro- 
posed, nearly  on  the  line  of  the  dirt  roadway 
above  mentioned,  continuing  the  Boulevard 
northwardly  into  East  43rd  Street.  From 
Broadway  north  East  43rd  Street  would  be 
widened  on  its  east  side  from  85  to  100  feet, 
and  the  avenue  would  be  continued  on  easy 
curves  over  unimproved  land  somewhat  ele- 
vated above  the  river  bank  and  from  50  to 
200  feet  back  from  the  river.  This  location 
is  chosen  rather  than  the  Boulevard  as  now 
laid  out,  in  order  to  elevate  the  roadway  and 
thus  obtain  a wider  outlook  over  the  Passaic 
Valley,  as  well  as  to  obtain  a park  area  along 
the  bank  of  the  I'iver  which  will  be  of  in- 
estimable value  to  the  residential  area  to  the 
west,  when  the  river  is  reclaimed.  All  that 
portion  of  the  Boulevard  heretofore  laid  out 
on  the  river  bank  between  East  43rd  Street 
and  Tenth  Avenue,  as  well  as  between  East 
31st  Street  and  Fifth  Avenue  would  be  in- 
cluded in  the  park  area  where  not  taken  in 
the  new  boulevard  location. 

The  Boulevai’d  is  made  continuous  where 
now  broken  at  the  Cramer  & King  Co.’s 
works  by  curving  it  through  Tenth  Avenue 
around  the  westei’ii  side  of  this  plant. 

The  street  north  to  Fifth  Avenue  bounds 
a residential  area  and  added  value  will  no 
doubt  be  given  to  it  for  this  purpose,  by  the 
continuous  Boulevard  and  park  strip  between 
the  Boulevard  and  the  river.  North  of  Fifth 


Avenue,  the  adjacent  property  is  industrial 
and  the  Boulevard  follows  exisitinff  lines 
alono-  the  I'iver  bank  nearly  to  the  Wag’araw 
Bridge  where  the  Boulevard  is  swung  to  the 
west,  cutting  a one-story  factory  building  in 
order  to  make  an  adequate  approach  to  that 
bridge. 

MORRIS  AND  ESSEX  BOULEVARD. 

The  IMorris  Canal  extending  from  the  Hud- 
son River  at  Jersey  City  to  the  Delaware 
River  at  Phillipsburg,  has  not  been  in  use  foi' 
some  years  and  is  a very  considerable  barrier 
to  traffic  as  the  antiquated  bridges  over  the 
canal  are  narrow  and  the  approaches  are  vei  y 
abrupt  with  dangerous  turns  and  steep 
grades. 

The  canal  has  a nominal  width  of  40  feet 
at  the  water  surface,  25  feet  bottom  width 
and  a depth  of  5 feet.  The  right  of  way  aver- 
ages about  66  feet  in  width.  The  canal  is 
level  throughout  Paterson,  is  about  100  feet 
above  its  business  center  and  averages  some 
15  feet  below  the  Lackawanna  Railroad  which 
parallels  it  on  the  west. 

The  canal  winds  through  Paterson  in  ap- 
proximately the  arc  of  a semi-circle  around 
Garret  Rock  which  is  some  200  feet  above  the 
canal,  approaching  the  city  in  a northei'ly 
direction  and  leaving  it  in  a southwesterly 
direction. 

The  Moriis  Canal  and  Banking  Company 
and  the  Lehigh  Valley  Railroad  Company,  its 
lessee,  are  the  ownei’s  and  occupants  of  the 
Canah  By  the  terms  of  the  charter,  the 
State  has  the  right  to  take  the  property  in 
1924  by  paying  the  fair  value  thereof  and, 
by  the  terms  of  its  charter,  it  would  reveil  to 
the  State  in  1974. 

Negotiations  have  })een  in  progress  for 
some  time  with  a view  to  releasing  to  the 
State  most  of  the  canal  property.  ft  is  ex- 
pected that  legislation  in  i-egard  to  the  trans- 
fer will  be  enacted  at  the  present  session  of 
the  legislation. 

It  is  important,  therefore,  to  determine 


FIGURE  55. — Morris  and  Essex  Boulevard.  Slater 
Street  straightening.  Hoxsey  Street  widening. 


what  is  the  best  public  use  to  which  the  prop- 
erty can  be  put.  Its  value  to  the  State  lai’ge- 
]y  lies  in  its  continuity  and  the  opportunity  it 
gives  for  removing  the  obstructing  bridges 
and  improving  the  highways  at  the  crossings. 
After  careful  study  of  various  suggested  uses 
it  is  believed  that  a continuous  boulevard 
from  Branch  Brook  Park  or  Bloomfield  to 
Phillipsburg  on  the  Delaware  River  will  be 
most  satisfactoiy.  This  will  not  preclude 
the  use  of  parts  ol'  the  canal  for  water  sup])ly 


58 


pipe  lines  if  found  desirable.  This  boulevard 
will  give  a fairly  direct  thoroughfare  line 
for  the  most  part  between  Bloomfield  and  the 
business  section  of  Paterson  by  way  of  Bar- 
clay Street  and  Marshall  Street.  The  pres- 
ent dangerous  and  obstructive  bridges  at 
Marshall  Street  and  Barclay  Street  should 
be  removed.  The  boulevard  would  cross  these 
sti’eets  at  their  level  with  an  improvement 
of  present  grades.  The  elimination  of  the 
grade  crossings  would  be  effected  much  more 
satisfactorily  than  if  the  water  way  remained. 
A park  area  is  proposed  on  the  west  side  of 
the  canal  between  Marshall  and  Barclay 
Streets  to  include  the  bank  on  the  west  side. 
Connection  is  also  proposed  with  the  existing 
street  system  at  Clay  and  Mill  Streets,  while 
a park  area  now  mostly  unimproved  property 
and  a part  of  it  occupied  by  a playground 
would  be  taken  on  the  east  side  of  the  canal 
to  Slater  Street  and  Grand  Street,  extending 
from  Spruce  Street  to  about  200  feet  east  of 
New  Street.  In  connection  with  this  im- 
provement, Slater  Street  is  given  a more 
direct  connection  into  Grand  Street  and  its 
usefulness  should  be  considerably  increased. 

At  New  Street,  the  present  narrow  and 
ancient  bridge  would  be  removed,  the  inter- 
secting thoi'oughfare  brought  to  a common 
grade  and  a square  formed  where  the  boule- 
vard would  also  connect  with  Grand  Street 
and  Hoxsey  Street.  This  latter  street  would 
be  widened  to  80  feet  for  a bridge  connection 
with  the  west  side  of  the  Passaic.  To  the 
west  of  New  Street,  Barnes  Street,  adjoining 
the  canal  on  the  noi’th  and  which  carries  a 
street  railway  track,  would  be  incorporated 
within  the  limits  of  the  boulevard. 

NEWARK  AVENUE. 

Madison  Avenue  terminates  on  the  south 
at  Main  Street  and  there  is  at  present  no 
satisfactory  connection  with  Bloomfield  Road 
or  Valley  Road  and  the  localities  along  these 
roads. 

It  is  proposed  to  supply  this  deficiency  ])y 


extending  Madison  Avenue  across  Main 
Street  into  Newark  Avenue,  widening  this 
street  on  its  easterly  side  fi'om  sixty  to 
eighty  feet  and  continuing  it  into  Marshall 
Street  and  the  Morris  and  Essex  Boulevard. 

Madison  Avenue  with  the  break  at  the  Sus- 
quehanna Railroad  removed  and  extended 
into  Newark  Avenue  then  will  become  the 
important  artery  connecting  Ridgewood  and 
Montclair,  which  its  location  and  width  predi- 
cate. When  this  improvement  is  carried 
out,  there  should  be  little  occasion  for 
through  pleasure  traffic  between  these  local- 
ities to  pass  through  the  congested  portion  of 
the  city. 

YORK  AVENUE. 

This  avenue,  extending  from  Twelfth  Ave- 
nue to  Putnam  Street,  is  one  of  the  ancient 
highways  of  the  city  which  has  not  been 
obliterated  by  the  rectangular  street  system. 

Since  it  runs  adjacent  to  and  parallel  with 
the  Susquehanna  Railroad,  and  because  it  can 
readily  be  connected  with  East  15th  and  East 
16th  Street  on  the  north  and  East  18th  Street 
on  the  south,  it  can  be  made  to  form  with 
these  streets  an  important  traffic  artery.  It 
then  makes  a traffic  thoroughfare  between 
River  Street  and  the  Riverside  section  on  the 
north  by  easy  grades  through  East  18th 
Street  to  Market  Street  and  points  south. 

The  importance  of  this  connection  is  large- 
ly due  to  the  fact  that  East  15th  Street  and 
East  16th  Street  are  the  only  streets  running- 
north  and  south  between  the  Susquehanna 
Railroad  and  East  27th  Street  which  have 
suitable  grades  for  heavy  trucking.  All  the 
othei's  go  up  and  then  down  a hill  some  50 
feet  high  by  considei'able  grades. 

East  16th  Street,  which  is  60  feet  wide, 
forms  a junction  with  York  Avenue,  having 
a width  of  50  feet,  at  Putnam  Street.  There 
is  an  offset  in  these  streets  of  about  40  feet 
which  it  is  proposed  to  remove  by  cutting- 
through  two  and  one-half  blocks  from  100 
feet  north  of  Keen  Street  to  Lyon  Street, 


FIGURE  56. — York  Avenue  extension  and  widening. 
Ninth  Avenue  cutoff. 


which  would  involve  moving'  five  frame 
houses. 

York  Avenue,  at  the  present  time,  is  50 
feet  wide.  It  is  proposed  to  make  it  (50  feet 
wide  by  widening  on  either  side  as  indicated 
on  the  sketch.  A ti'iangular  piece  of  prop- 
erty is  taken  at  12th  Avenue  and  the  railroad 
to  make  a direct  connection  with  East  18th 
Street. 

Plans  proposed  for  the  elimination  of  grade 


crossings  on  the  Susfiuehanna  liailroad  show 
Keen  Street  passing  undei'  the  railroad  and 
when  this  project  is  carried  out.  Keen  Street 
and  Ninth  Avenue  will  make  an  important 
east  and  west  thoroughfare. 

Governor  Street  and  Eleventh  Avenue  also 
form  an  important  crosstown  thoroughfare, 
and  to  make  the  connection  of  these  streets 
as  easy  as  practicable  without  interfer- 
ing with  traffic  on  other  streets,  it  is  pro- 
posed to  widen  out  York  Avenue  north  of 
Governor  Street  to  the  railroad  property. 

MADISON  AVENUE. 

Madison  Avenue,  80  feet  wide,  is  perhaps 
the  most  important  north  and  south  thor- 
oughfare in  the  city  for  pleasure  traffic. 
This  traffic  is  very  heavy  during  the  summer 
months.  The  usefulness  of  the  street  is 
greatly  impaired,  however,  by  the  break  in 
its  continuity  at  the  Susquehanna  Railroad. 
All  traffic  is  forced  to  detour  around  this 
break  by  shaip  turns  through  narrow  streets. 
Undesirable  interference  with  the  normal 
traffic  on  these  streets  is  also  a consequence 
of  the  interruption.  Only  frame  buildings  of 
considerable  age  are  cut  by  this  improvement. 
In  connection  with  this  proposal,  it  is  recom- 
mended to  extend  Sixteenth  Avenue  east- 
wardly  over  now  vacant  property  into  Madi- 
son Avenue.  This  street,  paralleling  Park 
Avenue,  should  serve  to  relieve  its  ti'affic 
to  some  extent. 

SIXTEENTH  AVENUE  AND 
CROSHY  PLAGE. 

Park  Avenue  has  to  carry  heavy  traffic  of 
all  classes — automobiles,  busses  and  street 
cai's.  It  is  highly  important  to  provide  reliei' 
for  the  street  in  i)arallel  sti'eets  to  the  great- 
est extent  possible.  To  provide  such  relief 
is  the  main  object  of  this  improvement. 
Ci'osby  Place  would  be  widened  to  70  feet 
and  extended  over  railroad  property  undei' 
the  railroad  tracks,  which  would  be  elevated 
according  to  the  railroad  grade  crossing 


GO 


FIGURE  57.— Madison  Avenue  extension.  Van  Houten 
Street  extension.  16th  Avenue  Extension. 

elimination  plans.  A connection  would  thus 
be  made  at  Market  Street  and  Raili'oad  Ave- 
nue favorable  for  the  diversion  of  traffic  into 
this  avenue.  To  further  increase  its  useful- 
ness, it  is  proposed  to  extend  this  street  over 
unimproved  property  into  Madison  Avenue. 
Much  better  outlets  will  be  afforded  both  east 
and  west  to  all  property  on  this  sti'eet  than 
is  the  case  at  present. 

MORTON  STREET. 

At  present  Morton  Street  has  a length  of 
thi-ee  blocks  l)etween  Straight  Street  and 
Summei’  Sti'eet.  In  order  to  improve  the 
traffic  circulation  around  the  new  railroad 
station  which  has  been  proposed  as  a part  of 
the  I'ailroad  gi-ade  crossing  elimination  plans, 
as  well  as  to  furnish  some  relief  to  the  Mar- 
ket Street  traffic,  it  is  proposed  to  extend 
Moilon  Sti-eet  under  the  elevated  tracks  of 


the  Erie  Railroad  at  a width  of  70  feet  from 
Straight  Street  to  Railroad  Avenue,  passing 
to  the  north  of  the  Eastwood  factory.  To 
fui'ther  accomplish  the  purposes  above  men- 
tioned, it  is  proposed  to  extend  Morton  Street 
eastwardly  to  Market  Street  through  a 
corner  of  Sandy  Hill  Park. 

EAST  FIFTH  STREET. 

This  improvement  will  afford  a better 
traffic  thoroughfare  from  the  industrial  dis- 
ti'icts  on  the  west  side  of  the  river  to  the 
industrial  areas  in  the  Riverside  section  of 
the  city  as  well  as  better  connect  them  with 
Fairlawn  and  points  east.  It  will  also  more 
fully  utilize  the  Hillman  Street  and  Sixth 
Avenue  bridges  as  well  as  improve  the  traffic 
connection  between  the  Riverside  industrial 
section  and  the  downtown  business  section  of 
the  city.  To  accomplish  these  aims,  it  is 
proposed  to  eliminate  a 100-foot  offset  in  East 
Fifth  Street  at  Branch  Street  by  directly 
connecting  the  two  portions  of  East  Fifth 
Street  through  unimproved  property  and  to 
extend  it  one  block  from  Warren  Street  to 
Keen  Street,  thus  bringing  it  into  River 
Street. 

VAN  HOUTEN  STREET. 

Van  Houten  Street,  extending  from  Mill 
Street  to  East  18th  Street,  is  in  line  with 
14th  Avenue,  which  runs  from  Madison  Ave- 
nue to  East  Side  Park.  These  streets  are 
separated  by  a block  on  which  are  several 
frame  buildings  and  the  tracks  of  the  Sus- 
quehanna Railroad.  It  is  proposed  to  join 
Van  Houten  Street  and  14th  Avenue  by  cut- 
ting through  the  block.  At  least  half  of  the 
value  of  the  obstructing  buildings  would  be 
taken  in  clearing  the  break  in  Madison  Ave- 
nue at  this  place.  A crossing  of  the  railroad 
can  l)e  provided  in  plans  for  the  elimination 
of  the  railroad  grade  crossings.  Fourteenth 
Avenue  is  well  built  up.  A direct  traffic  con- 
nection with  the  heart  of  the  city  is  import- 
ant. This  connection  will  also  serve  to  make 


01 


FIGURE  58. — East  Fifth  Street  extension.  River 
Street  widening. 


Van  Houten  Street  and  Fourteenth  Avenue  a 
parallel  of  much  importance  to  Broadway 
and  relieve  it  of  considerable  traffic  originat- 
ing to  the  south. 

TWENTY-THIRD  AVENUE. 

Twenty-third  Avenue  should  be  an  import 
ant  link  in  the  traffic  plan  of  the  city.  It  is 
l^roposed  to  cut  off  the  northeast  cornei'  oi' 
East  Twenty-third  Street  and  Madison  Ave- 
nue. This  would  permit  a trolley  now  on 
East  Railway  Avenue  to  be  relocated  so  as 
to  run  on  23rd  Avenue  to  Ti'enton  Avenue 
and  thence  south  to  Crooks  Avenue,  thus 
opening  up  this  entire  area  for  residential 
development  as  well  as  serving  the  heavy  in- 
dustrial zone  to  the  west. 

A continuous  thoroughfare  is  thereby  ob- 
tained via  Beckwith  Avenue,  Alabama  Ave- 
nue and  Market  Street  in  no  place  less  than 
70  feet  wide.  This  will  put  the  southwest 
section  of  the  city  in  direct  communication 
with  the  Market  Street  Bridge. 


These  im])rovements  together  with  that  of 
Newark  Avenue  furnish  a through  traffic 
route  from  Bloomfield  and  Montclaii'  via 
Bloomfield  Road  and  Valley  Road,  Newaik 
Avenue  (])roposed),  Madison  Avenue,  Cali- 
fornia Avenue  and  Market  Street  to  eastei'ly 
points  via  the  Market  Street  bi-idge,  shunting 
the  business  portion  of  the  city. 

SUMMER  STREET  VIADUCT. 

Summer  Street,  which  is  80  feet  wide  from 
Fulton  Street  north,  stops  at  Keen  Street. 
Traffic  to  continue  northerly  on  Summer 
Street  has  to  turn  at  right  angles  on  Keen 
Street,  pi'ogress  about  200  feet  west  and  then 
turn  through  a large  angle  into  River  Street. 

To  avoid  these  turns  and  the  indirect  traffic 
route,  in  connection  with  the  elimination  of 
the  railroad  grade  crossings,  it  is  proposed  to 
carry  the  railroad  on  a viaduct  between  Keen 
Street  and  River  Street.  The  railroad  right 
of  way  underneath  the  structure  will  then 
be  available  for  carrying  Summer  Street  traf- 
fic directly  into  River  Street. 

CLARK  STREET. 

Clark  Street,  were  it  not  for  the  offset  at 
Market  Street,  would  really  be  a continuation 
of  Church  Street.  This  offset  seriously 
interferes  with  all  the  ti-affic  using  the  three 
intersecting  streets.  Traffic  crossing  from 
Church  to  Clark  or  from  Clark  to  Church,  in- 
stead of  cutting  the  traffic  on  Market  Street 
at  right  angles  must  in  either  case  join  the 
traffic  on  that  street,  unnecessarily  congest- 
ing it  and  slowing  it  down.  The  two  turns 
necessary  to  go  from  one  street  to  another 
are,  moi'eover,  exceptionally  awkward  and 
dangerous.  Much  traffic  i-ef rains  from  using 
either  street  because  of  this  offset. 

If  the  southwest  coi-nei'  of  Clark  and  Mar- 
ket Streets  weie  cut  off.  Church  and  Clai'k 
Sti-eets  would  be  made  i^i-actically  a continu- 
ous street,  intersecting  Market  Street  almost 
at  right  angles  and  entii'ely  obviating  the  two 
turns  now  necessary  to  cross  it.  This  would 


G2 


almost  afford  the  equivalent  of  another  short 
north  and  south  street  through  the  business 
section  extending  all  the  way  from  Broadway 
to  De  Grasse  Street. 

PASSAIC  RIVER  BRIDGES. 

The  City  of  Paterson  is  not  only  separated 
in  a measure  from  surrounding  areas  which 
should  be  an  integral  part  of  its  business 
territory  by  political  boundaries,  but  by  the 
Passaic  River  as  well.  This  river  surrounds 
the  main  part  of  the  city  for  two-thirds  of 
its  circumference  and  it  is  only  on  the  south 
that  bridges  are  not  necessary  for  communi- 
cation with  the  surrounding  country.  Garret 
Rock  and  the  Morris  Canal  offer  such  great 
obstructions  that  the  river  crossings  may  be 
said  to  extend  along  more  than  three-quartei's 
of  the  circumference  of  the  main  portion  of 
the  city  available  for  outside  communication. 

The  importance  of  the  highway  bridges 
over  the  Passaic  River  in  relation  to  its  traf- 
fic thoroughfares  as  well  as  to  the  business 
interests  and  well  being  of  the  city  is,  there- 
fore, manifest. 

To  the  northwest  across  the  river  are  the 
Totowa  and  Haledon  sections  of  the  city,  both 
largely  residential,  and  inhabited  by  a con- 
sidei’able  portion  of  the  people  working  and 
doing  Inisiness  in  the  city.  This  portion  of 
the  city  extends  on  both  sides  of  the  river 
for  about  one-third  of  its  length  through  and 
around  the  city.  Seven  of  the  14  highway 
bridges  spanning  the  Passaic  within  the  city 
limits  connect  this  area  with  the  main  por- 
tion of  the  city. 

Beginning  at  the  western  end  of  the  city, 
the  existing  and  proposed  bridges,  proceeding 
down  the  river  are  as  follows : 

1.  Lincoln  Bridge — This  bridge  connects 
McBride  Avenue  with  Totowa  Avenue  and 
Cumberland  Avenue  at  the  westei’ly  limits  of 
the  city. 

2.  Preakness  Avenue  Bridge — This  is  a 
proposed  bridge  which  would  connect  the 
pi’oposed  Morris  and  Essex  Boulevaid,  Grand 
Street  and  Little  Falls  Road  over  the  Passaic 


into  Preakness  Avenue  at  the  easterly  side 
of  West  Side  Park,  and  into  the  proposed 
Fallsway  Memorial.  This  bridge  would 
form  an  important  link  in  the  system  of  ave- 
nues contemplated  in  the  major  street  plan. 

3.  Spruce  Street  Bridge — This  bridge, 
which  is  immediately  above  the  Falls,  gives 
an  excellent  view  of  them,  and  connects  Mar- 
ket Street  through  Spruce  Street  and  Wayne 
Avenue  with  the  Totowa  section  of  the  city. 
Its  north  approach  will  be  on  the  proposed 
Fallsway  Memorial. 

4.  Prospect  Street  Bridge — Prospect 
Street  at  the  present  time  is  a street  of  fair 
width  and  comparatively  little  traffic.  It 
more  nearly  parallels  Main  Street  than  any 
other  in  its  most  congested  section.  It  is 
proposed  to  make  this  street  a parallel  to 
Main  Street  and  relieve  that  street  of  con- 
gested traffic  by  bridging  the  river  at  the 
foot  of  Prospect  Street  over  to  the  Island. 
From  the  Island,  the  bridge  would  branch  one 
leg  entering  Hamburgh  Avenue  and  the  other 
turning  into  the  proposed  Fallsway  Memorial. 

5.  West  Street  Bridge — This  bridge,  the 
most  important  in  the  city,  is  a continuation 
of  Main  Street  into  Hamburgh  Avenue.  Part 
of  its  heavy  traffic  would  be  diverted  over 
the  proposed  Prospect  Street  bridge. 

6.  Main  Street  Bridge — The  location  of 
this  bridge  indicates  that  it  should  be  of  first 
importance,  directly  connecting  as  it  does. 
Main  Street  with  North  Main  Street  and 
points  to  the  north.  Main  Street,  however, 
between  Broadway  and  Bank  Street  is  only 
47  feet  wide  and  between  Fair  Street  and 
Hamilton  Avenue  is  occupied  by  so  many 
market  teams  that  through  traffic  is  throt- 
tled to  such  an  extent  that  the  longer  course 
through  Bridge  Street  and  over  the  Arch 
Street  bridge  is  generally  preferred.  The 
bridge  accommodates  a large  amount  of  local 
trucking  however. 

7.  Arch  Street  Bridge — Ai'ch  Street 
bridge  at  the  present  time  carries  the  trolley 
lines,  busses  and  most  of  the  pleasure  traffic 
from  the  business  center  to  Hawthorne  and 


o: 


points  north.  W'hen  l>rid}>e  Street  is  extend- 
ed and  widened  as  i)i'oi)osed,  the  trad’ic  will 
arrive  more  directly  at  this  bridge  and  the 
tralVic  will  be  even  heavier  but  most  of  the 
tributary  traffic  is  now  forced  to  use  this 
bridge. 

8.  Straigiit  Street  Kridge — When  the 
contemplated  widening  and  extension  of 
Straight  Street  is  completed,  a through  route 
to  one  side  of  the  congested  district  will  be 
provided  for  automobile  traffic  from  Mont- 
clair, Bloomfield,  Newark,  etc.  to  Haledon, 
Hawthorne,  Ridgewood  and  points  north  over 
this  bridge.  This  bridge  would  then  take  a 
larger  share  of  the  burden  which  now  falls 
mainly  on  the  Arch  Street  bridge. 

9.  Hillman  Street  Bridge — This  is  a mod- 
ern steel  bridge  with  little  traffic.  It  con- 
nects the  Haledon  section  of  the  city  wdth  the 
Riverside  industrial  section  and  affords  ample 
communication  between  them.  Traffic  will 
distribute  itself  over  this  bridge  by  the  pro- 
posed improvements  in  East  Fifth  Street. 

10.  Sixth  Avenue  Bridge — This  bridge 
also  connects  the  Haledon  section  of  the  city 
with  the  Riverside  industrial  section.  Con- 
siderable trucking  passes  over  this  bridge  be- 
tween industries  on  either  side  of  the  river. 
The  contemplated  improvement  of  East  5th 
Sti’eet  will  facilitate  this  traffic. 

11.  East  19th  Street  Bridge — This  bridge 
connects  River  Street,  East  19th  Street  and 
Madison  Avenue  with  Hawthorne,  Ridgewood 
and  points  north  via  Lincoln  Avenue.  There 
are,  unfortunately,  abrupt  turns  in  the  street 
approaches  to  this  bridge  and  its  alignment 
introduces  other  turns,  so  that  the  course  of 
traffic  from  any  of  the  streets  in  Paterson 
into  Lincoln  Avenue  is  very  ii-regular.  The 
bridge,  too,  is  hidden  by  frame  buildings  so 
that  it  cannot  readily  be  seen  when  ap- 
proached. 

It  is  proposed  to  make  the  inadequate  ap- 
proaches more  satisfactoiy  by  removing  the 
th}'ee  frame  buildings  in  the  way  of  a direct 
approach  from  River  Street,  as  well  as  cut 
off  the  southwest  corner  of  Madison  Avenue 


at  Eii'st  Avenue  and  the  noitheast  coiiiei-  of 
East  19th  Street  and  First  Avenue  so  that 
the  traffic  fi-om  Madison  Avenue  can  use  the 
bridge  with  safety  and  comfort. 

12.  Wagaraw  Bridge — This  is  the  most 
important  bridge  for  the  Riverside  section 
leading  to  Ridgewood  and  points  north  via 
Maple  Avenue.  The  larger  part  of  the  heavy 
summer  traffic  on  Madison  Avenue  moves 
north  via  this  bridge,  turning  a right  angle 
at  Madison  Avenue.  It  is  proposed  to  make 
this  turn  less  abrupt  and  improve  the  route 
via  this  bridge  by  cutting  off  the  southeast 
corner  of  Madison  Avenue  and  First  Avenue. 

The  proposed  Boulevard  should  take  a con- 
siderable part  of  the  large  north  and  south 
pleasure  traffic  which  makes  use  of  this 
bridge  and  to  provide  a satisfactory  approach, 
it  is  proposed  to  widen  the  Boulevard  some- 
what to  the  west  so  that  it  will  be  100  feet 
wide  to  the  w’est  of  the  wing  wall  of  the 
bridge. 

13.  Fifth  Avenue  Bridge — This  bridge 
connects  the  Riverside  industrial  section  with 
Fairlawn,  Paramus  and  points  to  the  east, 
also  via  the  Paramus  Road  with  communities 
to  the  north  and  south  as  well.  The  bridge 
does  not  directly  connect  with  Fifth  Avenue 
as  there  is  an  offset  of  more  than  100  feet  at 
the  Boulevard. 

Traffic  on  the  projected  Boulevard  would 
be  interfered  with  to  a greater  or  less  extent 
by  this  cross  traffic  on  Fifth  Avenue  turning 
into  and  out  of  the  Boulevard.  Consequent- 
ly, it  would  be  well  when  the  present  bridge 
is  replaced,  to  consider  a new  location  con- 
tinuing Fifth  Avenue  directly  across  into  the 
street  south  of  Fairlawn  Avenue. 

14.  East  33rd  Street  Bridge — This  bridge 
connects  33rd  Street,  which  is  an  extension 
of  Vreeland  Avenue  and  Lakeview  Avenue, 
via  the  proposed  extension  of  East  37th 
Street,  into  Bellaii'  and  points  to  the  north  in 
Bergen  County. 

15.  Eleventh  Avenue  Bildge — This  is  a 
l)roposed  bridge  to  convey  traffic  on  the  pro- 
posed cross  town  thoroughfare  north  of 


64 


FIGURE  59. — The  flow  of  traffic  fluctuates  momentarily.  The  automobile  traffic  of  one  fifteen  minute  period  is 
often  double  that  of  the  preceeding  fifteen  minute  period.  The  volume  on  the  two  sides  of  a street  varies 
enormously. 


Broadway  through  Govei'uor  Street  and 
Eleventh  Avenue  across  the  Passaic  into  Ber- 
gen County.  With  suitable  connections  to 
the  east,  it  should  carry  a considerable  part 
of  the  traffic  to  and  from  parts  of  the  city 
to  the  north  of  Broadway  which  now  crosses 
the  Broadway  Bridge. 

16.  Broadway  Bridge — This  important 
bridge  over  which  the  traffic  between  the 
central  business  section  of  the  city  and  points 
to  the  west  passes,  via  Areola,  is  not  modified 
in  the  plans  proposed.  Other  bridges  are 
proposed  to  the  north  and  south,  however, 
which  take  part  of  its  traffic. 

17.  Park  Avenue  Bridge — This  is  a pro- 
loosed  extension  of  Park  Avenue  across  the 
Passaic  River  and  would  be  a necessary  link- 
in  a thoroughfare  continuing  Park  Avenue 
thi'ough  at  present  undeveloped  territory  in 
Bergen  County. 


18.  Eighteenth  Avenue  Bridge — This  is 
a proposed  bridge  to  carry  Eighteenth  Ave- 
nue across  the  Passaic  River.  This  bridge 
with  other  proposed  bridges  in  the  vicinity 
are  planned  to  give  better  communication  be- 
tween Paterson  and  localities  to  the  east.  To 
effect  this  18th  Avenue  should  be  continued 
in  Bergen  County  to  Passaic  Junction. 

19.  Market  Street  Bridge — This  import- 
ant bridge  directly  connecting  the  business 
centre  of  Paterson  through  Dundee  Lake  and 
Rochelle  Park  with  Hackensack  as  well  as 
points  to  the  south  and  west,  is  given  better 
approaches  from  the  Lakeview  section  by  the 
proposed  plans.  The  proposed  connection 
of  Alabama  Avenue  with  Market  Street  and 
the  changes  in  Newark  Avenue  should  bring 
the  Lakeview  section  of  the  city  in  much 
closer  relation  to  Bergen  County  points  via 
this  bridge. 


VEHICULAR  TRAFFIC  STREAMS 

MAIN  & MARKET  STREETS 


8A.M-6P.M  AUGUST  15,1921 
SCALE  - VEHICLES 


JITNECVS 


FIGURE  60. — Removing  the  jitneys  and  trucks  from  Main  Street  will  very  appreciably  lessen  congestion.  The 
extension  of  Marshall  Street  would,  moreover,  enable  through  traffic  to  avoid  Main  Street. 


6G 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  ADMINISTRATIVE  AND  FINANCIAL  MACHINERY  FOR 
CARRYING  OUT  THE  PLAN. 


Quite  as  important  as  the  city  plan  itself 
is  the  financial  and  legal  plan  devised  to 
carry  out  the  improvements  contemplated  by 
the  plan.  How  to  apply  the  city’s  resources 
toward  the  carrying  out  of  a plan  in  a man- 
ner that  will  neither  embarrass  the  city’s 
finances,  endanger  the  solvency  of  individual 
pi'opei'ty  owners,  nor  unduly  disturb  the  con- 
duct of  business  during  the  execution  of  the 
plan  are  administrative  problems  of  major 
importance  which  must  be  thought  out  before 
any  real  plan  can  be  undertaken  with  a view 
to  successful  completion.  Both  the  city  and 
the  property  owner  must  be  in  a position  to 
pay  for  the  plan  or  the  plan  can,  of  course, 
never  be  realized.  It  is  this  homely  fact 
which  necessitates  the  consideration  of  such 
technical  but  none  the  less  fundamental  mat- 
ters as  the  establishment  of  proposed  street 
lines  upon  the  city  map,  the  control  of  im- 
provements within  the  lines  of  mapped 
streets,  condemnation,  damages,  special  as- 
sessments, assessment  bonds,  debt  limits — 
indeed,  the  entire  administrative  and  financial 
machinery  necessary  to  be  set  in  motion  for 
the  carrying  out  of  the  plan. 

The  Establishment  of  Proposed 
Street  Lines. 

’fhe  fii’st  step  in  carrying  out  a street  plan 
must  of  necessity  be  the  establishment  of 
the  proposed  street  lines  and  their  incoipora- 
tion  as  a part  of  the  city  plan.  Only  through 
placing  the  projected  widenings  and  exten- 
sions upon  the  official  map  of  the  city  can 
owners  develop  their  pinperty  in  accordance 
with  the  city’s  program  of  improvement. 

The  mere  mapping  of  the  proposed  im- 
pi'ovements  will  injure  no  one.  Nobody  will 
be  I'esti’ained  from  the  free  use  and  enjoy- 


ment of  his  property ; every  plot  can  be  used 
in  exactly  the  same  manner  as  the  owner 
would  anyhow  whether  or  not  the  projected 
street  lines  were  laid  down  upon  the  city  map. 
But  as  the  mapping  of  the  proposed  streets 
places  the  owner  under  no  legal  obligation 
to  observe  the  plan,  neither  is  the  city  obliged 
to  observe  it.  Mapping  a street  over  private 
property  is  a quite  different  thing  from  tak- 
ing private  pioperty  and,  until  property  is 
actually  taken,  there  need  be  no  compensa- 
tion. If  owners  have  the  right  to  disregard 
the  plan,  so,  too,  has  the  city — it  may  change 
or  modify  the  plan,  or  it  may  refrain  from 
ever  carrying  out  the  improvement  if  it  so 
elects. 

If  this  is  the  law,  wherein  then,  is  the 
advantage  of  placing  the  proposed  street 
widenings  and  extensions  upon  the  city  map  ? 
The  chief  outstanding  advantage  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  gives  the  city  a constructive 
program  of  development,  it  focuses  public 
attention  upon  a group  of  co-ordinated 
impi’ovements  which  when  executed  will  fit 
into  a comprehensive  scheme  promoting  the 
highest  development  of  all  parts  of  the  com- 
munity. If  they  are  not  placed  upon  the 
map,  they  will  never  be  carried  out,  and  if 
they  are  not  placed  upon  the  map  until  the 
city  is  ready  to  carry  them  out,  their  execu- 
tion is  going  to  be  deferred  for  many  years 
after  the  time  their  execution  would  other- 
wise be  possible. 

The  fact  that  these  improvements  have 
been  placed  upon  the  official  map  after  an 
exhaustive  survey  of  the  needs  of  the  whole 
community  will,  moreover,  tend  to  prevent 
the  spending  of  public  moneys  upon  relatively 
unimpoi'tant  improvements. 

All  owners  without  exception  are  anxious 
to  improve  their  property  in  a manner  to  in- 


67 


croaso  its  valuo.  Until  an  odicial  map  is 
adopted,  they  are  denied  the  privilege  eithei' 
of  improving  their  jn-opeily  in  a manner  to 
give  its  value  the  maximum  enhancement  or 
of  helping  the  community  to  attain  a compre- 
hensive plan. 

Immediate  Acquisition  of  Vacant 
Land  Within  Proposed  Streets. 

All  vacant  land  within  projected  street 
lines  should  be  immediately  acquired  by  the 
city.  Such  land  presumably  will  never  be 
cheaper  to  acquire  than  now.  So  long  as  the 
city  refrains  from  acquiring  the  land  with- 
in mapped  streets,  the  owner,  of  course,  has 
the  right  to  use  it  as  he  chooses.  The  land 
is  his  until  it  is  actually  taken  by  the  city  and 
until  that  time  he  has  not  only  a right  to 
develop  it  and  to  erect  buildings  upon  it,  but 
a right  to  put  up  buildings  with  the  single 
ol)ject  of  extracting  larger  damages  from  the 
city  when  his  property  is  taken. 

For  the  city  to  procrastinate  in  taking  the 
land  that  is  at  present  vacant  within  mapped 
streets,  whether  such  streets  be  widenings  or 
extensions,  is  in  effect  to  give  tacit  approval 
to  its  development  without  reference  to  the 
official  plan.  If  the  map  may  be  changed 
and  the  streets  completely  abandoned  without 
any  indemnity  against  loss  being  guaranteed 
the  owner  on  account  of  compliance  with  the 
plan  in  the  development  of  his  property,  cer- 
tainly the  owner  cannot  be  blamed  for  taking 
his  own  counsel  in  improving  his  land  and 
ignoring  the  mapped  street. 

Justice  to  the  owner  of  vacant  land  within 
projected  street  lines  who  will  suffei'  serious 
loss  in  observing  the  plan  should  the  city 
alter  its  intention  of  ultimately  taking  his 
property,  as  well  as  justice  to  the  tax])ayei', 
who  through  the  refusal  of  the  municii)ality 
to  take  such  lands  immediately,  would 
through  rising  land  values  and  the  ei’ection 
of  costly  buildings  be  burdened  with  increased 


taxes,  both  demand  that  the  land  now  unbuilt 
u])on  be  i)ui'chased  without  delay. 

The  ac(|uisition  of  such  lands  is,  moreover, 
the  best  pledge  a city  can  give  of  its  intention 
to  carry  out  its  program. 

The  appropriation  of  so  much  of  the  front 
portion  of  vacant  lots,  or  of  the  forecourts  of 
improved  lots,  as  might  be  necessary  to  afford 
the  increased  width  to  the  widened  thorough- 
fare, would  make  the  owners  in  front  of  the 
widened  portions,  distributed  here  and  there 
as  they  would  be  throughout  the  length  of 
the  new  street,  the  staunchest  advocates  urg- 
ing the  quickest  possible  completion  of  the 
improvement. 

With  part  of  the  street  widened,  the  owners 
along  the  widened  portions  would  never  rest 
until  the  entire  thoroughfare  were  widened. 
There  would  be  no  tui’ning  back  from  the 
plan ; in  fact,  there  could  be  no  turning  back 
from  the  plan  because  the  city  would  stand 
irrevocably  committed  to  it. 

Gradual  Recession  of  Fronts  in  Built 
Portions  of  Widenings. 

The  acquisition  of  the  vacant  land  within 
the  projected  lines  of  a street,  of  course, 
would  still  leave  the  built-on  land  to  be  ac- 
quired before  the  street  is  completed.  Alter- 
ations in  street  lines  are  at  best  always 
difficult  and  expensive  but  in  the  case  of  im- 
proved properties,  they  are  doubly  difficult 
and  expensive.  In  Paterson,  the  land  values 
exceed  the  building  values  in  very  few  local- 
ities ; indeed,  outside  of  the  business  sections, 
the  building  values  are  almost  invai’iably 
greatei’  than  the  land  values  and  in  many 
cases,  as  where  the  land  is  improved  with 
expensive  factories,  this  excess  is  manifold. 
The  prudence  of  proceeding  most  cautiously 
with  the  widening  or  extension  of  streets 
through  built-up  localities  is  thei'efore 
obvious. 

When  it  comes  to  the  extension  of  a sti’eet, 
very  little  choice  is  left  to  the  city — to  get 


68 


any  benefit  at  all  from  the  street,  it  must 
expropriate  both  the  vacant  and  the  improved 
lands  at  once.  Unlike  a street  to  be  widened, 
there  is  in  the  case  of  a street  extension,  no 
existing  sti'eet,  not  even  a narrow  one,  to  be 
used  by  traffic.  The  use  of  the  thoroughfare 
cannot,  therefore,  go  on  hand  in  hand  with 
its  acquisition — all  of  it  has  to  be  acquired 
before  any  part  of  it  can  be  used  even  to  the 
slightest  degree.  Every  consideration  of 
prudence  and  expediency  demands  that  an 
extension  be  carried  out  as  an  integral  im- 
pi'ovement  without  delay. 

But  in  the  case  of  a street  widening,  econ- 
omy demands — unless  the  increased  width  is 
required  at  once — that  the  widening  be  made 
as  and  when  the  existing  buildings  are  de- 
molished and  reconstructed.  At  that  time 
the  new  building  can  be  made  to  recede  to 
the  new  street  lines,  thus  relieving  the  city 
of  all  damages  for  buildings. 

This  method  of  widening  streets  has  been 
exercised  on  several  different  occasions  in 
Philadelphia.  The  power  to  proceed  in  this 
manner  is  conferi'ed  upon  the  cities  of  New 
Jersey  by  Chapter  137,  Laws  of  1920. 

It  would  be  disastrous  to  the  city  to  require 
that  all  the  streets  in  need  of  widening  should 
be  widened  in  their  entirety  at  once.  By 
gradual  widening  as  and  when  old  buildings 
are  replaced  by  new  ones,  progress  is  made 
step  by  step  towards  a wider  street  without 
unduly  straining  either  the  city’s  or  the  prop- 
erty owner’s  finances. 

Platting  the  new  or  widened  street  upon 
the  city  plan  interferes  with  no  one  in  the 
use  and  enjoyment  of  his  property  until  he 
comes  to  rebuild.  This  may  be  in  a year, 
ten  years,  or  a hundred  years.  But  when  the 
property  owner  does  rebuild,  his  building 
must  recede  to  the  new  street  line.  It  is 
then  that  he  is  injured,  if  he  is  injured  at  all ; 
and  it  is  then  that  his  land  is  taken  for  public 
use,  and  he  is  entitled  to  have  his  damages 
assessed. 

The  instant  an  old  building  is  torn  down, 
the  city  takes  that  part  of  the  plot  within 


FIGURE  61. — Note  how  the  City  Hall  trolley  loop  con- 
gests the  narrow  portion  of  Ellison  Street  between  Main 
and  Washington  Streets. 


the  widened  street  for  public  use.  Existing 
buildings  are  not  interfered  with.  Immed- 
iately upon  the  destruction  of  the  old  build- 
ing, the  city  takes  possession.  Recession 
follows  upon  the  rebuilding  or  altering  of  the 
front  of  the  buildings  now  erected.  The  mo- 
ment this  rebuilding  is  commenced  is  there- 
fore the  moment  of  taking  which  gives  the 
person  whose  land  is  taken  the  right  to 
damages. 

Making  Improvements  Pay 
for  Themselves. 

Judicious  expenditure  on  a well-thought 
out  city  plan  usually  results  in  an  apprecia- 
tion of  neighboring  land  values  that  is  at 


least  equal  to  the  sum  expended  upon  its 
execution.  In  some  iustauces,  the  enhance- 
ment in  nearby  values,  may  even  exceed  the 
cost  of  an  imi)rovement. 

Thron.eii  the  assessment  of  benefits,  a city 
plan  may,  to  a laro-e  extent  be  made  to  pay 
for  itself  without  encroaching  upon  the 
mnniciiiality’s  borrowing  power,  increasing 
the  general  tax  I'ate,  or  throwing  new  finan- 
cial burdens  upon  those  least  able  to  bear 
them. 

It  is  a rare  improvement  that  does  not  con- 
fer some  local  benefit.  Such  local  benefit  as 
an  improvement  confers  upon  neighboring 
property  should  be  assessed,  the  assessment 
being  limited  only  by  the  cost  of  the  improve- 
ment and  the  amount  of  benefit  confeired. 
The  city  should  assume  no  part  of  the  cost 
where  the  local  benefit  is  sufficient  to  pay 
the  whole  expense.  Only  in  instances  where 
the  local  benefit  does  not  equal  the  cost  of 
the  improvement,  should  the  city  at  large 
participate  in  the  expense.  When  the  city 
assumes  part  of  the  cost,  the  sum  assumed 
should  be  limited  by  the  amount  that  the 
local  benefit  falls  short  of  defraying  the  whole 
cost. 

Property  can  be  assessed  only  for  the  bene- 
fit derived  from  an  improvement.  The  as- 
sessment may  not  be  for  benefit  that  is 
speculative  and  distant  or  dependent  upon 


remote  and  uncertain  contingencies.  ’’I’he 
benelit  must  be  substantial,  certain  and  call- 
able of  being  realized  within  a reasonable  and 
convenient  time.  An  assessment  cannot  be 
levied  if,  in  the  opinion  of  the  courts,  the 
measure  is  premature  and  will  cost  more  than 
the  proprietors  of  the  adjacent  land  will  be 
benefited  by  the  improvement. 

To  be  assessed,  property  must  be  of  such 
a nature  that  its  value  is  capable  of  actual 
enhancement  in  consequence  of  an  improve- 
ment. Unless  this  enhancement  in  value  is 
susceptible  of  reasonably  accurate  measure- 
ment, the  property  cannot  be  assessed.  An 
assessment  should  represent  the  difference 
between  the  value  of  the  property  before  and 
after  the  improvement.  In  levying  an  assess- 
ment, the  enhanced  value  of  property  by 
reason  of  the  improvement  should  be  taken 
into  consideration. 

The  assessment  of  benefits  will  make  great 
improvements  immediately  possible  which  if 
paid  for  by  bond  issues  would  have  to  be  de- 
ferred for  many  years.  The  city’s  borrowing 
capacity  is  limited  by  law  to  seven  per  cent, 
of  its  assessment  roll.  At  present  the  city 
is  within  one  per  cent,  of  its  debt  limit. 
Obviously  the  city’s  borrowing  margin  is  un- 
able to  finance  the  improvements  I’ecommend- 
ed  in  this  report. 


70 


CHAPTER  VI. 
EXCESS  CONDEMNATION. 


Excess  condemnation  is  a city  planning 
power  that  not  only  Paterson  but  every  city 
in  the  state  should  possess.  Without  it,  the 
benefit  that  may  be  conferred  by  an  improve- 
ment is  often  to  a very  large  extent  lost. 

Under  the  present  limitations  of  our  state 
constitution,  a city  in  projecting  a street  im- 
provement is  prohibited  from  taking  more 
land  than  the  minimum  absolutely  necessary 
for  the  proposed  widening  or  extension.  No 
matter  what  condition  the  adjoining  property 
is  left  in  when  a street  is  widened  or  extend- 
ed, the  city  is  forbidden  to  take  more  land 
than  that  which  lies  within  the  two  lines  of 
the  proposed  street.  The  property  fronting 
upon  the  street  may  be  cut  up  into  plots  so 
irregular  in  shape  and  so  small  in  area  as  to 
be  practically  useless,  yet  the  municipality  is 
powerless  to  take  effective  steps  towards  the 
replotting  of  the  land  which  must  occur  be- 
fore the  full  benefit  of  the  improvement  can 
be  enjoyed. 

If  the  city  had  the  power  to  take  excess 
lands,  it  could,  in  condemning  land  for  the 
street,  not  only  condemn  the  land  required 
for  the  street  itself  but  so  much  additional 
land  as  might  prove  desirable  to  form  suit- 
able building  plots  contiguous  to  the  new 
street.  Sometimes,  where  a portion  of  a lot 
is  taken,  the  value  of  the  entire  parcel  must 
be  paid.  In  such  instances,  the  city  would 
certainly  do  better  to  acquire  the  fee  to  the 
entire  lot. 

The  Massachusetts  Committee  on  Eminent 
Domain  stated  the  case  for  the  replotting  of 
remnants  most  ably  in  the  following  words: 

“The  land  abutting  on  any  existing  street 
is  divided  and  arranged  in  lots,  which  as  well 
as  the  circumstances  have  admitted,  are 
adapted  to  the  street  in  its  present  condition, 
and  the  buildings  thei'eon  are  constructed  in 
conformity  therewith.  Any  widening  of  the 


street  not  only  destroys  the  existing  build- 
ings, but,  by  reducing  the  size  of  abutting 
lots,  leaves  the  residues  of  remnants  of  many 
of  them  in  such  shape  and  size  as  to  be  entire- 
ly unsuited  for  the  erection  of  proper  build- 
ings unless  and  until  these  remnants  have 
been  united  with  the  adjoining  properties, 
generally  with  those  in  the  rear,  which  are 
thus  enabled  to  extend  out  to  the  new  street 
lines. 

“The  same  condition  is  found,  and  fre- 
quently even  to  a greater  extent,  when  a new 
thoroughfare  is  laid  out  through  existing 
l)locks  covered  with  buildings. 

“Hence,  when  an  existing  street  is  widened 
or  a new  thoroughfare  is  laid  out  under  the 
present  system,  the  lots  on  one  or  both  sides 
of  the  new  or  widened  street  are  left  in  such 
condition  that,  until  a re-arrangement  can  be 
made,  no  suitable  buildings  can  be  erected, 
and  the  public  benefit  to  be  derived  from  the 
improvement  is  in  great  measure  lost.” 

So  serious  and  far-reaching  in  their  effect 
are  these  disastrous  economic  consequences 
resulting  from  the  present  method  of  widen- 
ing old  and  laying  out  new  streets,  that  they 
furnish  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of 
excess  condemnation. 

The  maps  of  almost  any  street  widening  oi' 
extension  demonstrate  the  advantage  of  ex- 
cess condemnation.  They  graphically  pre- 
sent the  infinitesimal  morsels,  the  narrow, 
elongated  gores,  and  the  shallow  remnants 
with  diagonal  fronts  of  varying  widths,  so 
frequently  left  by  street  improvements.  In 
some  instances,  the  angles  are  not  right 
angles ; and  the  opposite  sides  of  the  same  lot 
are  neither  parallel  nor  equal.  When  Delan- 
cey  Street  in  New  York  was  widened  to  pro- 
vide for  the  bridge  approach  a tapering  strip 
with  an  area  of  some  90.8  square  feet  was 
left  extending  along  the  street  for  more  than 


71 


VEHICULAR  TRAFFIC 

MAIN  & VAN  HOUTEN 


STREAMS 

STREETS 


eA  ts/i-6P.M.  June:  23,1921 

SCALE  - VEHICLES 


FIGURE  62. — Van  Houten  Street  occupies  a position  midway  between  a one-way  and  a two-way  street. 
Traffic  at  intersections  of  two  two-way  streets  moves  iri  12  different  directions.  At  Van  Houten  Street  it  moves 
in  9 directions.  At  an  intersection  of  a one-way  and  two-way  street  it  moves  in  7;  at  an  intersection  of  two 
one-way  streets  it  moves  in  4 directions. 


72 


one  hundred  feet  with  an  average  width  of 
less  than  eleven  inches.  Several  other  strips 
less  than  ten  feet  in  width  were  left  fronting 
along  the  widened  thoroughfare  for  an  equal 
distance.  These  strips  robbed  the  lots  ad- 
joining them  in  the  rear  of  their  natural 
frontage  on  Delancey  Street. 

The  following  are  examples  of  plots  left  by 
improvements  actually  made  in  New  York: 

At  the  corner  of  Elizabeth  and  Delancey 
Streets  a triangular  segment  9.10x1.51  feet 
in  dimension,  or  6.87  square  feet  in  area;  be- 
tween Mulberry  Street  and  Cleveland  Place 
on  Delancey  Street,  a segment  1.47x8.98,  or 
6.59  square  feet  in  area ; between  Barclay  and 
Vesey  Streets  on  West  Broadway,  a segment 
2.6x13.5,  or  17.27  square  feet  in  area;  on 
Prince  Street  and  Flatbush  Avenue,  one  4.3x 
10.3  or  21.96  square  feet  in  area;  on  Lafa- 
yette Street  and  Flatbush  Avenue,  one  1.7x 
6.4  or  5.28  square  feet  in  area;  and  on  Lafa- 
yette and  Pearl  Streets  one  4.8x9. 2,  or  21.63 
square  feet  in  area. 

It  is  self-evident  that  the  utility  for  com- 
mercial purposes  of  the  lots  fronting  on  these 
street  extensions  and  widenings  was  greatly 
impaired.  Lots  which,  if  united  under  single 
ownership,  would  afford  sites  for  substantial 
business  blocks  commensurate  with  the  im- 
portance of  the  street,  and  which  would  bring 
in  large  rents,  are  now  on  or  very  near  the 
margin  of  no-rent  land.  They  are  so  small 
and  irregular  in  size  as  to  be  totally  unfit  for 
improvement.  “There  are  streets  in  New 
York  today,”  says  Mr.  Lawson  Purdy,  “which 
have  been  widened  for  ten  years  but  still  look 
as  though  they  had  been  devastated  by  an 
earthquake.  The  reason  is  that  when  the 
map  is  inspected  it  is  found  that  there  are  all 
sorts  of  small  bits  of  land  in  separate  owner- 
ships just  as  they  were  when  the  street  was 
widened.” 

Since  each  parcel,  by  the  mere  fact  of  its 
adjacence,  commands  the  values  of  the  neigh- 
boring plots,  every  owner  becomes,  as  it  were, 
a monopolist.  Knowing  the  strategic  posi- 
tion of  his  own  remnant  and  that  its  union 


with  any  other  would  immediately,  without 
any  effort  on  his  own  part,  result  in  a greater 
value  than  the  sum  of  the  two  separately, 
each  proprietor  over-estimates  the  true  im- 
portance of  his  own  plot  and  shrewdly  bar- 
gains to  get  not  only  the  proportion  that  his 
own  parcel  contributes  to  this  increased  val- 
ue, but  also  as  much  more  as  he  is  able  to 
wring  from  the  purchaser.  Not  succeeding 
in  his  designs  by  legitimate  means,  the  owner, 
if  he  be  unscrupulous,  sometimes  erects  so 
objectionable  a building  on  his  land  or  puts 
the  land  to  such  a use  as  practically  to  coerce 
the  adjoining  owner  into  either  purchasing  it 
at  an  exorbitant  price  or  selling  his  own  at  a 
great  sacrifice.  The  limited  power  of  emin- 
ent domain,  heretofore  existing,  has  often 
served  to  make  the  ultimate  development  of 
the  city  dependent  upon  petty  jugglery. 

In  some  instances,  remnants  owned  by 
estates  may  be  so  tied  up  as  to  make  it  im- 
possible to  sell  or  develop  them. 

Until  a concentration  of  ownership  takes 
place,  the  enhancement  in  value  of  the  real 
estate  fronting  on  the  improvement  is  held  in 
abeyance;  if  the  separate  parcels  are  not 
united,  the  increased  value  never  matures  at 
all.  Sometimes  the  increase  which  would 
naturally  be  expected  is  not  enjoyed  by  any- 
one to  its  full  extent.  Even  though  the 
property  owners  are  deterred  from  realizing 
upon  the  improvement,  they  are,  neverthe- 
less, obliged  to  pay  the  special  assessments 
levied  to  pay  its  cost.  Excess  condemnation 
not  only  relieves  the  land  owners  from  this 
burden,  but  accelerates  the  city’s  growth  and 
prosperity  by  insuring  the  quick  and  sure 
development  of  its  thoroughfares. 

Excess  condemnation  is  of  benefit  not  only 
to  the  community,  but  frequently  to  the  priv- 
ate owner  as  well.  The  Massachusetts  Com- 
mittee on  Eminent  Domain  puts  it  thus: 

“It  frequently  happens  that  an  owner,  the 
greater  part  of  whose  estate  is  necessarily 
taken  for  a public  work,  would  prefer  not  to 
be  left  with  the  remnant  on  his  hands,  and  if 
an  opportunity  were  offered,  would  volun- 


7‘.\ 


FIGURE  63. — Map  of  Paterson  1840.  The  causes  of  present  day  street  congestion  in  Paterson  are  to  be  found  in  the  totai  iack  of  ali  pianning  fifty,  eighty 
and  a hundred  years  ago.  The  communities  suburban  to  Paterson  are  now  deveioping  without  regard  to  any  pian  just  as  Paterson  did. 


74 


tarily  request  the  city  to  take  the  whole 
estate.  Many  people  recognize  that  thei’e  is 
less  opportunity  for  differences  of  opinion 
upon  the  question  of  market  value  of  a whole 
estate  than  over  the  more  complicated  ques- 
tion of  the  value  of  the  portion  which  has 
been  taken,  and  the  damag’es  to  the  remainder 
by  reason  of  such  taking ; and  hence  a system 
under  which  the  city  would  acquire  the  whole 
estate  would  be  productive  of  greater  ease  in 
the  settlement  of  damages,  and  less  likelihood 
of  litigation  over  the  question  involved.” 

To  secure  the  power  of  excess  condemna- 
tion, the  constitution  of  the  state  will  have 
to  be  amended.  Immediate  steps  should  be 
taken  towards  this  end. 

Within  the  past  few  years  five  states.  New 
York,  Massachusetts,  Ohio,  Wisconsin  and 
Rhode  Island,  have  adopted  constitutional 
amendments  relative  to  excess  condemnation. 
This  fact  alone  suggests  how  important  the 
power  of  excess  condemnation  is  to  proper 
street  planning. 

The  New  York  amendment  is  submitted  as 
a desirable  model  for  New  Jersey  to  adopt. 


It  reads  as  follows : 

“The  legislature  may  authorize  cities  to 
take  more  land  and  property  than  is  needed 
for  actual  construction  in  the  laying  out, 
widening,  extending  or  relocating  of  parks, 
public  places,  highways  or  streets;  provided, 
however,  that  the  additional  land  and  prop- 
erty so  authorized  to  be  taken  shall  be  no 
more  than  sufficient  to  form  suitable  building 
sites  abutting  on  such  park,  public  place, 
highway  or  street.  After  so  much  of  the 
land  and  property  has  been  appropriated  for 
such  park,  public  place,  highway  or  street  as 
is  needed  therefor,  the  remainder  may  be  sold 
or  leased.” 

With  the  adoption  of  such  an  amendment 
to  the  state  constitution,  the  planning  powers 
of  the  city  will  be  considerably  strengthened. 
Today,  a city  projecting  a program  of  street 
widenings  and  extensions  stands  in  danger  of 
being  ruined  by  its  projected  improvements. 
Excess  condemnation  in  enabling  it  to  replot 
the  land  contiguous  to  a proposed  improve- 
ment stimulates  development. 


( HAPTKK  VII. 


SrK(’I  A I . ASS  P]SSMKNTS. 


Probably  no  city  has  had  more  experience 
in  assessing-  the  benefits  to  defray  the  cost  of 
street  improvements  than  New  York.  A 
brief  survey  of  the  methods  used  by  the  large 
metropolis  cannot  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest 
help  to  every  municipality  in  framing  its  own 
policy  on  the  subject. 

Street  openings  and  widenings  have  been 
assessed  in  New  York  since  1793.  For  the 
past  hundred  years,  the  damages  have  been 
estimated  by  three  commissioners  appointed 
by  the  Supreme  Court.  One  of  these  com 
missioners  designated  by  the  Court  as  the 
Commissioner  of  Assessments,  has  assessed 
the  benefits.  This  procedure  finally  proved 
so  unsatisfactory  that  it  was  abolished. 
Commencing  in  1917,  all  damages  and  benefits 
in  street  and  park  proceedings  have  been 
ascertained  by  the  Supreme  Court  without  a 
jury. 

Assessments  are  estimated  separately  by 
lots  and  not  by  blocks,  except  in  the  case  of 
acreage,  where  they  are  levied  according  to 
ownership.  This  practice  is  followed  even 
though  the  land  adjacent  to  an  improvement 
is  held  in  large  tracts.  The  reason  for  doing 
this  is  that  lots  frequently  change  ownershi]) 
during  the  progress  of  an  assessment.  To 
estimate  the  benefits  by  tracts  instead  of  by 
lots  would  not  only  inconvenience  the  ownei-s 
in  paying  their  assessments,  but  would  also 
give  the  city  difficulty  in  apportioning  them. 

The  benefits  and  damages  must  in  each  case 
be  assessed  separately.  It  is  not  sufficient 
to  report  the  excess  of  one  over  the  other. 
Originally  the  benefits  were  set  off  against 
the  damages  but  this  practice  did  not  provide 
adequate  data  for  the  coi-rection  of  errors  in 
the  estimate  and  assessment.  This  defect 
in  the  statute  was  remedied  more  thari 
seventy-five  years  ago. 


The  Benefit  Area. 

The  power  to  fix  the  benefit  ai-ea  was  in 
the  hands  of  the  commissioners  until  1906. 
In  that  year  it  was  transferred  to  the  Board 
of  Estimate  and  Apportionment.  The  com- 
missioners had  for  a long  time  practiced  lay- 
ing out  large  benefit  areas  to  avoid  large 
assessments  for  the  excessive  awards  which 
they  so  frequently  granted.  By  giving  the 
Board  of  Estimate  the  power  to  limit  the 
assessment  area,  it  was  hoped  that  the  com- 
missioners would  become  more  prudent  in 
their  awards.  The  amendment  was  also  in- 
tended to  secure  uniform  treatment  for  dif- 
ferent proceedings. 

When  the  commissioners  fixed  the  assess- 
ment area,  it  was  nothing  unusual  for  a par- 
cel to  be  assessed  for  several  street  openings 
— in  some  instances  as  many  as  five  or  six 
separate  proceedings.  The  districts  fre- 
quently included  several  blocks  on  each  side 
of  the  improvement.  They  also  extended  a 
like  distance  longitudinally  beyond  the  im- 
provement. To  remedy  this  situation,  the 
Board  of  Estimate,  under  the  authority  of 
this  charter  amendment,  immediately  adopt- 
ed a set  of  uniform  rules  to  govern  it  in  all 
proceedings. 

Disti'ibiition  of  Benefits  Between 
Different  Areas. 

The  benefits  may  be  apportioned  between 
districts  of  special  benefit,  one  or  more  bor- 
oughs, or  parts  of  boroughs,  and  the  city  at 
large.  T^evies  against  one  or  moi  e boroughs 
or  the  city  at  large  are  in  the  natui-e  of  fiat 
rate  assessments  and  collected  with  the  an- 
nual real  estate  tax.  This  obviates  the 
necessity  of  preparing  maps  to  show  the  rela- 


76 


tion  of  each  parcel  of  property  assessed  to 
the  improvement. 

The  rules  controlling  the  benefit  area  and 
the  apportionment  of  assessments  in  street 
openings  are  most  elaborate.  Under  these 
rules  the  assessment  area  is  generally  deemed 
to  include  one-half  the  area  between  the 
street  to  be  opened  and  the  nearest  parallel 
street  having  the  same  or  a greater  width. 
Except  in  unusual  cases,  the  local  area  of 
assessment  is  limited  by  a line  not  more  than 
1,000  feet  from  the  improvement. 

When  the  local  area  is  divided  into  zones, 
the  primary  area  is  deemed  to  be  the  prop- 
erty fronting  on  the  improvement  to  a depth 
of  100  feet.  The  primary  area  is  not  assessed 
for  acquiring  more  land  than  a street  having 
a width  of  60  feet,  plus  25  per  cent,  of  the 
actual  excess  over  that  width  up  to  a maxi- 
mum of  80  feet.  Neither  borough  nor  city 
I'elief  is  extended  unless  the  pi'imary  area 
will  otherwise  be  required  to  pay  for  more 
than  the  equivalent  of  80  feet.  In  determin- 
ing the  assessment,  the  street  is  considered 
as  being  its  actual  width  plus  the  value  of  the 
building  damage  expressed  in  terms  of  equiv- 
alent street  width  of  the  same  value  based  on 
the  aggregate  allowance  for  undedicated 
areas.  The  assumption  is  that  a share  of 
the  expense  equivalent  to  paying  for  a street 
80  feet  wide  represents  the  limit  of  local 
benefit.  The  percentage  of  cost  assessed 
locally  is,  therefore,  100  per  cent,  for  60-foot 
streets,  89  per  cent,  for  70-foot  street,  81  per 
cent,  for  80-foot  streets,  75  per  cent,  for  90- 
foot  streets,  70  per  cent,  for  100-foot  streets, 
62  pel'  cent,  for  120-foot  streets,  57  per  cent, 
for  140-foot  streets,  53  per  cent,  for  150-foot 
streets,  and  40  per  cent,  for  200-foot  streets. 

The  secondary  area  may  not  be  assessed  at 
a propoi'tionately  greater  rate  than  the  pri- 
mary area.  The  basis  for  this  assessment  is 
55  per  cent,  on  the  first  fourth  of  the  distance 
to  the  boundary  of  the  primary  area,  80  per 
cent,  on  the  first  half  of  the  distance,  and  93 
per  cent,  on  the  first  three-fourths  of  the 
distance. 


FIGURE  64. — Note  the  difference  in  the  peak  hour  on 
different  streets. 


Neither  borough  nor  city  benefit  is  recog- 
nized subject  to  the  above  provisions  unless 
the  street  has  a width  exceeding  80  feet  and 
borough  or  city  benefit  is  manifest.  City 
benefit  is  not  recognized  unless  the  street  is 
more  than  100  feet  wide.  Exception  to  this 
rule  may,  however,  be  made  in  unusual  cases. 
It  is  expected  that  where  benefit  to  more  than 
one  borough  or  where  benefit  to  the  city  is 
recognized,  at  least  50  per  cent,  of  the  benefit 
not  assessed  locally  must  be  assumed  by  the 
borough  in  which  the  improvement  is  located. 
Several  exceptions  have,  however,  been  made 
to  this  rule.  Any  expense  placed  upon  the 
city  by  reason  of  damage  to  buildings  is  de- 
ducted from  the  relief  afforded  the  local  area. 
Where  the  benefit  area  is  the  depth  of  a nor- 
mal lot  and  the  narrow  dimension  of  the  lot 
fronts  upon  the  improvement,  the  assess- 
ment is  a simple  matter.  Each  lot,  other 
things  being  equal,  bears  its  proportionate 
part  of  the  assessable  cost  subject  to  the  limi- 
tations imposed  by  law. 

Where  the  greater  dimension  of  the  lot, 
however,  fronts  upon  the  improvement,  four 
strips  are  laid  out  on  either  side  of  the  im- 
provement, a depth  of  25  feet  being  allotted 
to  each  strip.  Each  of  these  strips  bears  a 
diminishing  per  cent,  of  the  assessable  cost, 
the  exact  per  cent,  varying  according  to  the 
circumstances  in  the  particular  case.  The 


77 


FIGURE  65. — The  City  Hall  trolley  loop  prevents  Wash- 
ington Street  from  being  made  a two-way  street. 


minimum  and  usual  percentage  assessed 
against  the  first  strip  is  60  per  cent,  of  the 
assessable  cost,  against  the  second  20  per 
cent.,  against  the  third  12.5  per  cent,  and 
against  the  fourth  7.5  per  cent.  The  maxi- 
mum percentage  assessed  against  the  first 
sti’ip  rarely  exceeds  80  per  cent,  of  the 
assessable  cost. 

Where  the  benefit  area  exceeds  the  depth 
of  the  normal  lot,  the  assessable  cost  is  pro- 
rated between  a primary  and  a secondary 
area  of  assessment,  the  primary  area  consist- 
ing of  the  first  100  feet  abutting  on  the  im 
provement  and  the  secondary  area  of  the  land 
back  of  this  100  feet.  The  amount  charged 
against  the  primary  area  is  assessed  as  if  the 
benefit  did  not  exceed  the  depth  of  a normal 
lot,  the  land  l)eing  su!)divided  into  strips  and 
each  strip  bearing  a diminishing  per  cent,  of 
the  cost  assessed  against  the  area.  The 
amount  charged  against  the  secondary  area 
is  assessed,  not  by  strips,  but  by  lots.  The 
assessments  in  this  area  are  made  arbiti'arily, 
the  maximum  assessment  levied  on  the  lot 
nearest  the  improvement  being  less  than  that 
charged  against  the  fourth  strip  in  the  pri- 
mary area,  and  the  minimum  assessment 
levied  on  the  lot  most  i-emote  from  the 
impi'ovement  being  not  less  than  $5. 

The  borough  assessment  act  enables  the 
city  to  avoid  an  increase  in  its  bonded  indebt- 


edness by  i)aying  cash  for  its  improvements. 
The  increase  in  the  city  or  boi’ough  tax  I'ate 
I'esulting  from  this  policy  might,  in  the  case 
of  lai-ge  assesments,  be  so  gi-eat  as  to  imi)ose 
a very  serious  burden  upon  the  individual  tax- 
payer. This  is  despite  the  fact  that  the 
board  may  in  its  discretion  make  these  assess- 
ments payal)le  in  five  annual  installments. 
Although  this  has  not  happened,  yet  an  en- 
deavor has  l)een  made  to  anticipate  this  situa- 
tion by  limiting  the  amount  of  charges  that 
may  be  incurred  in  any  one  year.  Borough 
assessments  are  levied  against  all  property, 
no  distinction  being  made  between  land, 
buildings  or  personal  property. 


The  Half- Value  Rule. 

Since  1840,  the  commissioners  have  been 
prohibited  from  imposing  any  assessment 
upon  a plot  in  excess  of  one-half  its  taxed 
value. 

This  provision  has  saddled  a large  shai'e  of 
the  cost  of  many  improvements  upon  the  city, 
especially  in  those  instances  where  the  prop- 
erty values  have  been  grossly  underassessed. 
Before  real  estate  was  assessed  at  its  full 
value,  as  now,  the  effect  of  this  restriction 
was  to  limit  the  actual  assessment  for  benefit 
against  property  at  a figure  below  one-half 
of  its  true  value.  Tn  the  outlying  sections  it 
was  formerly  no  uncommon  occurrence  to  find 
property  assessed  at  a mere  fraction  of  its 
real  value.  In  such  cases  the  assessments 
for  benefit  very  often  did  not  exceed  one- 
eighth  or  one-tenth  of  the  full  value.  To 
bifng  the  assessments  legally  within  the 
scope  of  this  limitation,  a tendency  develoi)ed 
among  the  commissioners  to  extend  the  bene- 
fits ovei'  vei'y  large  areas. 

1 0 remedy  this  situation  the  charter  was 
amended  at  the  time  of  consolidation  to  j)ro- 
vide  that  the  assessments  should  in  no  case 
exceed  one-half  the  value  placed  upon  the 
l)i'operty  by  the  assessment  officials.  The 
manner  in  which  the  assessment  officials  are 
to  ari'ive  at  this  value  is  unrestricted  by  law. 


78 


They  are  not  required  to  take  the  valuation 
of  the  tax  commissioners. 

One  Third  of  Buildings  Assessed 
Upon  the  City. 

The  discretion  of  assessing  on  the  city  any 
portion  of  the  cost,  not  exceeding  one-third, 
of  the  buildings  taken  in  street  proceedings 
has  been  vested  in  the  commissioners  for  a 
very  long  time.  This  right,  however,  does 
not  extend  to  any  other  improvements  than 
buildings. 

In  the  earlier  openings,  the  Commissioners 
were  usually  more  ready  to  assess  a portion 
of  this  cost  upon  the  city  in  the  case  of  longi- 
tudinal than  in  the  case  of  cross  streets. 
The  former  being  the  main  traffic  thorough- 
fares, wei’e  assumed  to  confer  a greater  gen- 
eral benefit  upon  the  city  than  the  latter,  and 
consequently  more  properly  chargeable  in 
part  against  the  public  treasury.  This 
policy  has,  however,  not  been  followed  for 
many  years. 

Buildings  Within  Projected  Street  Lines. 

The  city  at  present  exercises  no  authority 
over  the  erection  of  improvements  within 
projected  street  lines.  The  city  plan  was  for 
many  years  effectively  controlled  through  a 
statutory  provision,  prohibiting  the  payment 
of  compensation  for  buildings  constructed 
within  proposed  streets.  Until  thirty  years 
ago,  the  courts  sustained  the  constitutionality 
of  this  clause.  Now,  however,  such  a pro- 
vision is  considered  invalid  on  the  theory  that 
it  imposes  a restriction  upon  the  use  of  prop- 
erty which  amounts  to  an  encumbrance.  The 
courts  have  held  it  unconstitutional  on  the 
ground  that  it  deprives  an  owner  of  the  bene- 
ficial use  and  free  enjoyment  of  his  property, 
or  that  it  at  least  imposes  a restraint  upon 
such  use  and  enjoyment  as  materially  to 
affect  its  value  without  legal  process  or  com- 
l)ensation. 

This  pi'inciple  has  more  recently  been 
cari-ied  so  far  by  the  courts  that  an  owner 


who  deliberately  and  intentionally  places  a 
building  within  the  lines  of  a projected  street 
for  the  sole  purpose  of  enhancing  the  dam- 
ages to  be  collected  from  the  city  does  not 
thereby  forfeit  his  right  to  compensation  for 
the  destruction  or  injury  to  his  building. 
The  commissioners  may,  however,  in  com- 
puting the  damages  in  such  a case,  consider 
whether  the  building  can  be  moved  further 
back  on  the  lot. 


The  Block  Rule. 

The  block  rule  is  applied  by  both  the  first 
and  second  judicial  department  in  assessing 
the  damages  incurred  for  land,  but  only  by 
the  first  judicial  department  in  assessing  the 
damages  incurred  for  buildings.  The  second 
judicial  department  prorates  the  cost  of 
buildings  upon  each  front  foot  of  land  in- 
cluded within  the  assessment  area.  The  ex- 
penses connected  with  the  estimate  and 
assessment  are  distributed  according  to  the 
frontage  in  both  departments.  The  appli- 
cation of  the  block  rule  to  buildings  increases 
the  portion  paid  by  the  city,  in  that  the 
awards  are  more  apt  to  exceed  one-half  the 
value  of  the  property.  The  first  department 
embraces  the  boroughs  of  Manhattan  and  the 
Bronx ; the  second,  the  boroughs  of  Brooklyn, 
Queens  and  Richmond. 

The  cost  of  the  land  taken  for  each  block 
of  street  is  generally  assessed  upon  the  prop- 
erty fronting  such  block.  Unless  it  appears 
that  one  piece  of  property  is  benefited  more 
than  another  similarly  situated,  this  rule 
must  be  applied.  Where  the  expense  of  open- 
ing a street  through  a certain  block  is  very 
much  greater  than  the  expense  of  opening  it 
through  the  rest  of  its  course,  the  court  is 
justified  in  imposing  upon  the  property  front- 
ing upon  such  block  an  assessment  for  such 
sum  as  it  deems  the  property  benefited  by 
the  opening  of  the  street.  Nor  is  the  block 
rule  applicable  where  an  extension  of  a street 


VEHICULAR  TRAFFIC  STREAMS 

MAIN  & ELLISON  STREETS 


SCALE  - VEHICLES 


PLAN  OF 
INTERSECTION 


S 


FIGURE  66.— One-way  streets  prevent  congestion  by  obviating  traffic  snarls  and  expediting  the  movement  of 
vehicles.  Making  Ellison  a one-way  street  eliminates  three  possible  traffic  movements  including  two  left  hand 
turns. 


80 


largely  benefits  the  surrounding  neighbor- 
hood as  well  as  the  property  fronting  upon  it. 
When  it  appears  that  pai't  of  the  land  bene- 
fited by  a sti’eet  is  interior  land  to  which 
there  is  no  access,  while  the  remaining  prop- 
erty fronts  on  a paved  street,  each  parcel  of 
land  is  assessed  proportionately  to  the  benefit 
sustained  without  regard  to  the  block  rule. 

Principles  Followed  in  Estimating 
Damages  for  Buildings. 

Where  buildings  are  suitable  to  the  land, 
direct  evidence  of  their  structural  value  is 
admissible.  The  structural  value  of  the 
building,  making  allowance  for  depreciation, 
and  the  value  of  the  land  may  in  such  cases 
be  shown  separately ; and  the  sum  of  these 
two,  though  not  a conclusive  test,  is  compe- 
tent evidence  of  the  market  value.  The 
proper  measure  of  damages  where  a portion 
of  a building  is  taken  is  the  difference  be- 
tween the  value  of  the  building  before  the 
improvement  and  the  value  of  the  remaining 
portion  after  the  improvement. 

In  1910,  the  Board  of  Estimate  and  Appor- 
tionment adopted  a resolution  for  the  destruc- 
tion of  buildings  encroaching  upon  streets  in 
all  cases  where  the  awards  claimed  were,  in 
the  judgment  of  the  CoiiDoration  Counsel, 
greater  than  the  actual  expense  of  moving 
such  buildings  back  from  the  street  lines.  In 
1911  the  Board  suggested  that  such  buildings 
l)e  offered  for  sale  at  an  upset  price  represent- 
ing the  difference  between  the  award  and  the 
actual  cost  of  removal. 

Principles  Followed  in  Estimating 
Damages  for  Land. 

The  value  of  land  is  usually  estimated  upon 
a scpiare  foot  basis  for  the  awai'ds.  IA)i' 
land  where  a whole  parcel  is  taken,  the  meas- 
ure of  damages  is  its  fair  market  value; 


FIGURE  67. — The  proposed  Fallsway  Memorial  would 
enter  the  downtown  section  by  way  of  Market  Island. 


where  a part  of  a parcel  is  taken,  the  measure 
of  damages  is  the  difference  between  the 
value  of  the  whole  before  the  taking  and  the 
value  of  the  residue  after  the  taking,  disre- 
garding the  benefit  resulting  from  the  im- 
provement. Whether  the  whole  parcel  or 
part  of  the  parcel  is  taken,  the  compensation 
in  either  case  must  be  the  present  value  of  the 
quantity  acquired,  and  this  value  must  be 
based,  not  on  what  the  property  would  bring 
at  a forced  sale,  but  on  its  fair  worth  in  the 
market. 

The  fact  that  an  appraisement  is  for  less 
than  the  land  cost  the  claimant  is  not  of  itself 
a ground  for  interfering  with  the  award. 
The  price  paid  upon  a bona-fide  sale  of  the 
property  about  the  time  of  vesting  title  in  the 
city  furnishes  some,  although  not  conclusive, 
evidence  as  to  its  value.  In  the  absence 
however,  of  evidence  that  it  was  sacrificed  or 
its  sale  forced  or  that  other  circumstances 
exist  which  except  the  case  from  the  general 
rule,  such  sale  price  is  regarded  as  control- 
ling. Although  the  value  of  land  taken  can- 
not be  established  by  showing  what  is  paid 
for  other  parcels  similarly  situated,  the 
awards  may  not  be  largely  in  excess  of  the 
amount  paid  for  other  property  in  the  vicinity 
at  bona-fide  sales.  The  value  of  lands,  more- 
over, cannot  be  established  by  testimony  of 


81 


FIGURE  68. — The  trolleys  limit  the  amount  of  traffic 
that  can  use  Main  Street  when  there  are  parked  cars 
at  the  curb. 


offers  received  for  the  property.  Evidence 
of  the  profits  of  a ))usiness  conducted  on  the 
land  taken  is  incompetent  as  proof  of  the 
market  value  of  the  property.  But  evidence 
as  to  the  intended  use  of  the  land  is  admissi- 
ble as  a part  of  the  res  gestae  to  show  the 
circumstances  under  which  it  was  taken,  and 
its  situation  when  appi'opriated. 

Damages  are  awarded  on  the  basis  of 
acreage  value,  and  not  on  city  lot  values, 
when  the  land  taken  extends  back  hundi’eds 
of  feet  from  the  highway  and  no  lots  are 
destroyed. 

Plottage  is  a percentage  added  to  the  ag- 
gregate value  of  two  or  more  contiguous  lots 
when  held  in  one  ownership  as  representing 
an  increased  value  pertaining  to  a group  of 
lots  by  reason  of  the  fact  that  they  admit  of 
more  advantageous  improvement  than  a 
single  lot.  As  a matter  of  law,  a property 
owner  is  not  entitled  to  plottage.  Whether 
an  awai'd  is  made  for  it  depends  upon  the 
circumstances  in  the  case  subject  to  the 
determination  of  the  commissioners  ui>on  the 
evidence.  Plottage,  if  allowed,  can  only 
attach  to  vacant  lots  or  to  lots  valued  irre- 


spective of  the  improvements  upon  them. 
Parties  to  a proceeding,  who  own  two  or  moi'e 
adjoining  lots,  may  i)resent  their  claims  for 
the  value  of  their  lots  considered  as  one  parcel 
or  as  separate  parcels.  Whei'e  plottage  is 
allowed,  the  full  value  of  the  liuildings  on  the 
separate  lots  need  not  be  awaixled;  where 
plottage  is  not  allowed,  the  full  value  of  each 
lot  and  its  buildings  must  be  awarded. 


Principles  Followed  in  Estimating 
Damages  for  Excess  Lands. 

Excess  condemnation,  though  not  yet 
utilized,  has  been  authorized  in  New  York 
since  1915,  provided  the  additional  property 
taken  is  not  more  than  sufficient  to  form  suit- 
able building  lots  abutting  on  the  improve- 
ment. Title  to  the  excess  lands  must  be  ac- 
quired in  the  same  proceeding  as  the  required 
lands.  The  compensation  awarded  by  the 
commissioners  for  required  and  excess  lands, 
respectively,  must  be  stated  in  their  report. 
In  arriving  at  the  damages  paid  for  the  re- 
quired land,  the  same  rule  is  applied  as  would 
govei'n  the  determination  of  damages  if  no 
excess  lands  were  taken.  The  fact  that  some 
of  the  land  is  required  and  some  is  excess 
does  not  entitle  an  owner  to  greater  compen- 
sation than  if  all  of  his  parcel  were  taken  as 
required  land.  Only  the  amount  paid  for 
the  I'equired  land  can  be  assessed  in  the  way 
of  benefits.  The  excess  lands  acquii’ed  by 
the  city  are  subject  to  assessment  for  benefit 
in  the  same  manner  as  land  not  taken. 


Principle.s  Followed  in  Estimating 
Damages  (or  Intended  Regulation. 

Damages  for  intended  regulation  of  grade, 
which  injured  buildings  not  required  for 
street  i)urposes,  were  discontinued  in  1915. 
For  almost  a century  generous  allowance  had 
been  made  for  such  damages,  although  they 


82 


had  not  been  suffered  at  the  time  of  allow- 
ance. Petitions  for  a change  in  the  legal 
grade  were  frequently  submitted  and  granted 
immediately  before  the  physical  grading  of 
the  street  was  contemplated.  In  such  cases 
compensation  was  paid  for  damages  never 
inflicted.  Where  a change  of  ownership  oc- 
curred before  the  intended  regulation  was 
effected,  the  result  was  often  very  embar- 


rassing to  the  purchasers  who  actually  suf- 
fered the  damages  Imt  did  not  receive  the 
awards,  these  having  been  pocketed  by  the 
original  owners.  The  awards  for  changes  in 
grade  are  now  made  when  the  street  is 
graded.  The  awards  are,  therefore,  paid  to 
those  who  own  the  buildings  at  the  time  they 
are  damaged. 


LEOENO  » 

mmam  cxistinc  stmccts 

•■■■■■  aTRCCTS  PROPOSCO  TOBCCXTCNOCO 

' ■ ■ •TRCC'ra  PR0P03C0  XO  BCWIDCNCD 


MAJOR  STREET  PLAN 
PATERSON,  NEW  JERSEY 
CITY  PLAN  COMMISSION 

HERBERT  8. SWAN  , CONSULTANT 


FIGURE  69.— MAJ 


A 


U.  S.  Printing  Company 
170-172  Main  Street 
Paterson,  N.  J. 


